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Charles Josselyn

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"THE LIFE BOOKS

The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit Thousand

This late book by Mr. Trine is. in the opinion
of some, his finest and strongest work— a book of
absorbing interest and power, and intensely practical.

In Tune With the Infinite Thousand

"It is one of the simplest, clearest works ever
written, dealing with power of the interior forces
in moulding the everyday conditions of life."— (Saw
Fra it cisco Ihilief in.

What All the World's A-seeking niSS^a*

"The volume abounds in passages of great
beauty and strength; but the striking feature of
the book is, after all, the solid, sensible, healthy
exposition of the one theme it is written to en-
force."— New York Independent.

The New Alinement of Life Thousand

The object of this work by Mr. Trine, expressed
in a single sentence, is to bring the teachings of the
Christian faith in line with the outlook, the need,
and the determination of our times.

In the Hollow of His Hand Thousand

"A characteristic and powerful plea for fresh
applications of Christianity, it will be eagerly read
by devout readers on both sides of the Atlantic."
— The Scotsman, Edinburgh.

This Mystical Life of Ours Thousand

Selections of two to three pages for each
week through the year from the works of Ralph
Waldo Trine.

Each Volume, $1.75

MR. TRINE'S LATEST BOOK
My Philosophy and My Religion

It is a clear, forceful statement of a Way of Life
that will unfold an engine of power for use in the
every-day life affairs of many people. $1.50

15 *

THIS MYSTICAL
LIFE OF OURS

BY

RALPH WALDO TRINE

NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY

1919

Copyright, i896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1906,
By RALPH WALDO TRINE

Copyright, 1907,
By RALPH WALDO TRINE

PSYCH.

LIBRARV

CONTENTS

I. The Fresh Beginning ....

II. The Supreme Fact of Human Life .

III. The Creative Power of Thought .

IV. The Drawing Power of Mind .
V. Creating One's Own Atmosphere .

VI. The Law of Attraction Works Unceas

INGLY

VII. The Law of Prosperity

VIII. The Law of Habit-Forming .

IX. Actualizing One's Ideals

X. Faith and Prayer— Their Nature

XI. The Petty Personal and the Larger Uni

versal

XII. The Poem Hangs on the Berry-Bush

XIII. The Influence of Our Prevailing Mental

States Upon Others .

XIV. Saviors One of Another
XV. Not Repression, but Self -Mastery

XVI. Thoughts Are Forces .

XVII. All Life from Within .

XVIII Heredity and the Higher Power

XIX. Castles in the Air .

PAGE

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viii Contents

PAGE

XX. The Anchor or the Sensitively Organ-
ized 66

XXI. How We Attract Success or Failure . 69
XXII. Fear Brings Failure . . . .71

XXIII. Heart Training Through the Animal

World 74

XXIV. The Secret and the Power of Love . 78
XXV. Then Give to the World the Best

You Have, and the Best Well Come

Back to You 82

XXVI. Hatred Never Ceases by Hatred, but

by Love 86

XXVII. Thought and Its Intelligent Defec-
tion 89

XXVIII. Will— The Human and the Divine . 92
XXIX. The Secret of the Highest Power . 95
XXX. Wisdom: or Interior Illumination . 99
XXXI. Let There Be Many Windows in Your

Soul 103

XXXII. As to the Quality of Our Education 107

XXXIII. A New Order of Patriotism . . .111

XXXIV. Men of Exceptional Executive and

Financial Abh.it y 116

XXXV. An Example— A Very Young Old Lady 119
XXXVI. How Mind Builds Body . . - .123

XXXVII. Soul Radiance 127

XXXVIII. Intuition: The Voice of the Soul . 131

XXXIX. MIRACLES AND THE HlGHER Ld?E . . 1 34

XL. The Voice of the Higher Self . . 137

Contents ix

PAGE

XLI. The Soul Must Be Made Translucent

to the Divine I4I

XLIL Receiving Instruction During Sleep . 144
XLIII. The Joseph Type Both Dreams and

Interprets 148

XLIV. Humaneness in our Diet . . .152

XLV. To Be at Peace 156

XL VI. Courage Begets Strength; Fear Be-
gets Weakness 161

XL VII. "And What Is Mine Shall Know My

Face" 166

XL VIII. Heredity and Environment — Are We

Bound by Them? 169

XLIX. Preserving One's Individuality . . 173
L. Exclusiveness and Inclusiveness :

What They Indicate . . . . 177

LI. The Nature of Real Riches . . 181

Lll. A Method of Attainment . . .185

THIS MYSTICAL LIFE OF OURS

I.

THE FRESH BEGINNING.

When one awakes from sleep and so returns
to conscious life, he is in a peculiarly receptive
and impressionable state. All relations with the
material world have for a time been shut off, the
mind is in a freer and more natural state, resem-
bling somewhat a sensitive plate, where impressions
can readily leave their traces. This is why many
times the highest and truest impressions come to
one in the early morning hours, before the activities
of the day and their attendant distractions have
exerted an influence. This is one reason why many
^people can do their best work in the early hours of
the day.

But this fact is also a most valuable one in con-
nection with the moulding of every-day life. The
mind is at this time as a clean sheet of paper.
We can most valuably use this quiet, receptive, im-
pressionable period by wisely directing the activities
of the mind along the highest and most desirable
paths, and thus, so to speak, set the pace for the
day.

Each morning is a fresh beginning. We are, as
it were, just beginning life. We have it entirely
in our own hands. And when the morning with its
fresh beginning comes, all yesterdays should be

4 This Mystical Life of Ours

yesterdays, with which we have nothing to do.
Sufficient is it to know that the way we lived our
yesterday has determined for us our today. And,
again, when the morning with its fresh beginning
comes, all tomorrows should be tomorrows, with
which we have nothing to do. Sufficient to know
that the way we live our today determines our to-
morrow.

"Every day is a fresh beginning,

Every morn is the world made new;
You who are weary of sorrow and sinning,
Here is a beautiful hope for you,
A hope for me and a hope for you.

"All the past things are past and over,

The tasks are done, and the tears are shed.
Yesterday's errors let yesterday cover;

Yesterday's wounds, which smarted and bled,
Are healed with the healing which night has shed.
*******
"Let them go, since we cannot relieve them,
Cannot undo and cannot atone.
God in His mercy receive, forgive them!-
Only the new days are our own.
Today is ours, and today alone.

"Here are the skies all burnished brightly;
Here is the spent earth all reborn ;
Here are the tired limbs springing lightly
To face the sun and to share with the morn
In the chrism of dew and the cool of dawn.

"Every day is a fresh beginning,

Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain,
And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning,
And puzzles forecasted, and possible pain,
Take heart with the day and begin again."

The Fresh Beginning 5

Simply the first hour of this new day, with all
its richness and glory, with all its sublime and
eternity-determining possibilities, and each succeed-
ing hour as it comes, but not before it comes. This
is the secret of character building. This simple
method will bring any one to the realization of the
highest life that can be even conceived of, and
there is nothing in this connection that can be con-
ceived of that cannot be realized somehow, some-
when, somewhere.

This brings such a life within the possibilities
of all, for there is no one, if really in earnest and
if he really desires it, who cannot live to his highest
for a single hour. But even though there should
be, if he is only earnest in his endeavor, then,
through the law that like builds like, he will be
able to come a little nearer to it the next hour, and
still nearer the next, and the next, until sooner or
later comes the time when it becomes the natural,
and any other would require the effort.

In this way one becomes in love and in league
with the highest and best in the universe, and as a
consequence, the highest and best in the universe
becomes in love and in league with him. They aid
him at every turn; they seem literally to move all
things his way, because, forsooth, he has first moved
their way.

Tn Tune with the Infinite.

II.

THE SUPREME FACT OF HUMAN LIFE.

The great central fact in human life is the coming
into a conscious, vital realization of our oneness
with the Infinite Life, and the opening of Ourselves
fully to this divine inflow. I and the Father are
one, said the Master. In this we see how he recog-
nized his oneness with the Father's life. Again he
said, The words that I speak unto you I speak not
of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He
doeth the works. In this we see how clearly he
recognized the fact that he of himself could do
nothing, only as he worked in conjunction with the
Father. Again, My Father works and I work. In
other words, my Father sends the power, I open
myself to it, and work in conjunction with it.

Again he said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you. And he left us not in the dark
as to exactly what he meant by this, for again he
said, Say not Lo here nor lo there; know ye not
that the kingdom of heaven is within you? Ac-
cording to his teaching the kingdom of God and the
kingdom of heaven were one and the same. If,
then, his teaching is that the kingdom of heaven is
within us, do we not clearly see that, putting it in

The Supreme Fact of Human Life 7

other words, his injunction is nothing more nor
less than, Come ye into a conscious realization of
your oneness with the Father's life. As you realize
this oneness you find the kingdom, and when you
find this, all things else shall follow.

Again, the Master said, Call no man your Father
upon the earth : for one is your Father, which is in
heaven. Here he recognized the fact that the real
life is direct from the life of God. Our fathers
and our mothers are the agents that give us the
bodies, the houses in which we live, but the real
life comes from the Infinite Source of Life, God,
who is our Father.

One day word was brought to the Master that
his mother and his brethren were without, wishing
to speak with him. Who is my mother and who
are my brethren? said he. Whosoever shall do the
will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is
my brother, and my sister, and mother.

Many people are greatly enslaved by what we
term ties of relationship. It is well, however, for
us to remember that our true relatives are not
necessarily those who are connected with us by ties
of blood. Our truest relatives are those who are
nearest akin to us in mind, in soul, in spirit. Our
nearest relatives may be those living on the opposite
side of the globe, — people whom we may never have
seen as yet, but to whom we will yet be drawn,
either in this form of life or in another, through

8 This Mystical Life of Ours

that ever working and never failing law of attrac-
tion.

When the Master gave the injunction, Call no
man your father upon the earth: for one is your
Father, which is in heaven, he here gave us the
basis for that grand conception of the fatherhood
of God. And if God is equally the Father of all,
then we have here the basis for the brotherhood of
man. But there is, in a sense, a conception still
higher than this, namely, the oneness of man and
God, and hence the oneness of the whole human
race. When we realize this fact, then we clearly see
how in the degree that we come into the realization
of our oneness with the Infinite Life, and so, every
step that we make Godward, we aid in lifting all
mankind up to this realization, and enable them, in
turn, to make a step Godward.

The Master again pointed out our true relations
with the Infinite Life when he said, Except ye be-
come as little children ye shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven. When he said, Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that pro-
ceeded out of the mouth of God, he gave utterance
to a truth of far greater import than we have as
yet commenced fully to grasp. Here he taught that
even the physical life can not be maintained by ma-
terial food alone, but that one's connection with this
Infinite Source determines to a very great extent
the condition of even the bodily structure and activ-
ities.

The Supreme Fact of Human Life 9

Said the great Hindu sage, Manu, He who in his
own soul perceives the Supreme Soul in all beings,
and acquires equanimity toward them all, attains
the highest bliss. It was Athanasius who said,
Even we may become Gods walking about in the
flesh. The same great truth we are considering is
the one that runs through the life and the teach-
ings of Guatama, who became the Buddha. People
are in bondage, said he, because they have not
yet removed the idea of /. To do away with all
sense of separateness, and to recognize the oneness
of the self with the Infinite, is the spirit that
breathes through all his teachings.

All the prophets, seers, sages, and saviours in the
world's history became what they became, and con-
sequently had the powers they had, through an en-
tirely natural process. They all recognized and
came into the conscious realization of their oneness
with the Infinite Life. God is no respecter of per-
sons. He doesn't create prophets, seers, sages, and
saviours as such. He creates men. But here and
there one recognizes his true identity, recognizes
the oneness of his life with the Source whence it
came. He lives in the realization of this oneness,
and in turn becomes a prophet, seer, sage, or
saviour.

In Tune with the Infinite.

III.

THE CREATIVE POWER OF THOUGHT.

Of the vital power of thought and the interior
forces in moulding conditions, and more, of the
supremacy of thought over all conditions, the world
has scarcely the faintest grasp, not to say even idea,
as yet. The fact that thoughts are forces, and that
through them we have creative power, is one of the
most vital facts of the universe, the most vital fact
of man's being. And through this instrumentality
we have in our grasp and as our rightful heritage,
the power of making life and all its manifold con-
ditions exactly what we will.

Through our thought- forces we have creative
power, not in a figurative sense, but in reality.
Everything in the material universe about us had
its origin first in spirit, in thought, and from this
it took its form. The very world in which we live,
with all its manifold wonders and sublime manifes-
tations, is the result of the energies of the divine
intelligence or mind, — God, or whatever term it
comes convenient for each one to use. And God
said, Let there be, and there was, — the material
world, at least the material manifestation of it,
literally spoken into existence, the spoken word,

The Creative Power of Thought II

however, but the outward manifestation of the in-
terior forces of the Supreme Intelligence.

Every castle the world has ever seen was first
an ideal in the architect's mind. Every statue was
first an ideal in the sculptor's mind. Every piece
of mechanism the world has ever known was first
formed in the mind of the inventor. Here it was
given birth to. These same mind-forces then dic-
tated to and sent the energy into the hand that drew
the model, and then again dictated to and sent the
energy into the hands whereby the first instrument
was clothed in the material form of metal or of
wood. The lower negative always gives way to the
higher when made positive. Mind is positive : mat-
ter is negative.

Each individual life is a part of, and hence is
one with, the Infinite Life; and the highest intel-
ligence and power belongs to each in just the de-
gree that he recognizes his oneness and lays claim
to and uses it. The power of the word is not mere-
ly an idle phrase or form of expression. It is a
real mental, spiritual, scientific fact, and can be-
come vital and powerful in your hands and in mine
in just the degree that we understand the omnip-
otence of the thought forces and raise all to the
higher planes.

The blind, the lame, the diseased, stood before
the Christ, who said, Receive thy sight, rise up and
walk, or, be thou healed; and lo! it was so. The
spoken word, however, was but the outward ex-

12 This Mystical Life of Ours

pression and manifestation of his interior thought-
forces, the power and potency of which he so thor-
oughly knew. But the laws governing them are
the same to-day as they were then, and it lies in our
power to use them the same as it lay in his.

What All the World's A-Seeking.

IV.

THE DRAWING POWER OF MIND.

Each individual life, after it has reached a cer-
tain age or degree of intelligence, lives in the midst
of the surroundings or environments of its own crea-
tion; and this by reason of that wonderful power,
the drawing power of mind, which is continually-
operating in every life, whether it is conscious of it
or not.

We are all living, so to speak, in a vast ocean of
thought. The very atmosphere about us is charged
with the thought-forces that are being continually
sent out. When the thought-forces leave the brain,
they go out upon the atmosphere, the subtle con-
ducting ether, much the same as sound-waves go
out. It is by virtue of this law that thought trans-
ference is possible, and has become an established
scientific fact, by virtue of which a person can so
direct his thought-forces that a person at a distance,
and in a receptive attitude, can get the thought
much the same as sound, for example, is conducted
through the agency of a connecting medium.

Even though the thoughts as they leave a par-
ticular person, are not consciously directed, they go
out ; and all may be influenced by them in a greater
or less degree, each one in proportion as he or she

14 This Mystical Life of Ours

is more or less sensitively organized, or in propor-
tion as he or she is negative, and so open to forces
and influences from without. The law operating
here is one with that great law of the universe, —
that like attracts like, so that one continually at-
tracts to himself forces and influences most akin to
those of his own life. And his own life is deter-
mined by the thoughts and emotions he habitually
entertains, for each is building his world from
within. As within, so without ; cause, effect.

A stalk of wheat and a stalk of corn are growing
side by side, within an inch of each other. The
soil is the same for both; but the wheat converts
the food it takes from the soil into wheat, the like-
ness of itself, while the corn converts the food it
takes from the same soil into corn, the likeness of
itself. What that which each has taken from the
soil is converted into is determined by the soul, the
interior life, the interior forces of each. This same
grain taken as food by two persons will be con-
verted into the body of a criminal in the one case,
and into the body of a saint in the other, each after
its kind; and its kind is determined by the inner
life of each. And what again determines the inner
life of each? The thoughts and emotions that are
habitually entertained and that inevitably, sooner
or later, manifest themselves in outer material form.
Thought is the great builder in human life : it is the
determining factor. Continually _trrink thoughts
that are good, and your life will show forth in

The Drawing Power of Mind 15

goodness, and your body in health and beauty.
Continually think evil thoughts, and your life will
show forth in evil, and your body in weakness and
repulsiveness. Think thoughts of love, and you
will love and will be loved. Think thoughts of
hatred, and you will hate and will be hated. Each
follows its kind.

What All the World's A-Seeking.

V.

CREATING ONE'S OWN ATMOSPHERE.

It is by virtue of this law that each person
creates his own " atmosphere " ; and this atmos-
phere is determined by the character of the
thoughts he habitually entertains. It is, in fact,
simply his thought atmosphere — the atmosphere
which other people detect and are influenced by.

In this way each person creates the atmosphere
of his own room; a family, the atmosphere of the
house in which they live, so that the moment you
enter the door you feel influences kindred to the
thoughts and hence to the lives of those who dwell
there. You get a feeling of peace and harmony or
a feeling of disquietude and inharmony. You get
a welcome, want-to-stay feeling or a cold, want-
to-get-away feeling, according to their thought at-
titude toward you, even though but few words be
spoken. So the characteristic mental states of a
congregation of people who assemble there deter-
mine the atmosphere of any given assembly-place,
church, or cathedral. Its inhabitants so make, so
determine the atmosphere of a particular village or
city. The sympathetic thoughts sent out by a vast
amphitheatre of people, as they cheer a contestant,
carry him to goals he never could reach by his own

Creating One s Ozvn Atmosphere

efforts alone. The same is true in regard t
orator and his audience.

Napoleon's army is in the East. The plague is
beginning to make inroads into its ranks. Long
lines of men are lying on cots and on the ground
in an open space adjoining the army. Fear has
taken a vital hold of all, and the men are continu-
ally being stricken. Look yonder : contrary to the
earnest entreaties of his officers, who tell him that
such exposure will mean sure death, Napoleon with
a calm and dauntless look upon his face, with a firm
and defiant step, is coming through these plague-
stricken ranks. He is going up to, talking with,
touching the men ; and, as they see him, there goes
up a mighty shout,— The Emperor ! the Emperor !
and from that hour the plague in its inroads is
stopped. A marvellous example of the power of a
man who, by his own dauntless courage, absolute
fearlessness, and power of mind, could send out
such forces that they in turn awakened kindred
forces in the minds of thousands of others, which
in turn dominate their very bodies, so that the
plague, and even death itself, is driven from the
field. One of the grandest examples of a man of
the most mighty and tremendous mind and will
power, and at the same time an example of one of
the grandest failures, taking life in its totality, the
world has ever seen.

We are all much more influenced by the thought-

This Mystical Life of Ours

.ces and mental states of those around us and
of the world at large than we have even the slight-
est conception of. If not self-hypnotized into cer-
tain beliefs and practices, we are, so to speak, semi-
hypnotized through the influence of the thoughts
of others, even though unconsciously both on their
part and on ours. We are so influenced and en-
slaved in just the degree that we fail to recognize
the power and omnipotence of our own forces, and
so become slaves to custom, conventionality, the
opinions of others, and so in like proportion lose our
own individuality and powers.

Each is building his world from within, and, if
outside forces play, it is because he allows them to
play ; and he has it in his own power to determine
whether these shall be positive, uplifting, ennobling,
strengthening, success-giving, or negative, degrad-
ing, weakening, failure-bringing.

What All the World's A-Seeking.

VI.

THE LAW OF ATTRACTION WORKS
UNCEASINGLY.

If one hold himself in the thought of poverty, he
will be poor, and the chances are that he will re-
main in poverty. If he hold himself, whatever pres-
ent conditions may be, continually in the thought
of prosperity, he sets into operation forces that will
sooner or later bring him into prosperous condi-
tions. The law of attraction works unceasingly
throughout the universe, and the one great and
never changing fact in connection with it is, as we
have found, that like attracts like. If we are one
with this Infinite Power, this source of all things,
then in the degree that we live in the realization of
this oneness, in that degree do we actualize in our-
selves a power that will bring to us an abundance
of all things that it is desirable for us to have. In
this way we come into possession of a power where-
by we can actualize at all times those conditions
that we desire.

As all truth exists now, and awaits simply our
perception of it, so all things necessary for present
needs exist now, and await simply the power in us
to appropriate them. God holds all things in His

20 This Mystical Life of Ours

hands. His constant word is, My child, acknowl-
edge me in all your ways, and in the degree that
you do this, in the degree that you live this, then
what is mine is yours. Jehovah- jireh, — the Lord
will provide. " He giveth to all men liberally and
upbraideth not." He giveth liberally to all men
who put themselves in the right attitude to receive
from Him. He forces no good things upon any
one.

The old and somewhat prevalent idea of godliness
and poverty has absolutely no basis for its existence,
and the sooner we get away from it the better. It
had its birth in the same way that the idea of
asceticism came into existence, when the idea pre-
vailed that there was necessarily a warfare between
the flesh and the spirit. It had its origin therefore
in the minds of those who had a distorted a one-
sided view of life. True godliness is in a sense the
same as true wisdom. The one who is truly wise,
and who uses the forces and powers with which he
is endowed, to him the great universe always opens
her treasure house.

Are you out of a situation? Let the fear that
you will not get another take hold of and dominate
you, and the chances are that it may be a long time
before you will get another, or the one that you do
get may be a very poor one indeed. Whatever the
circumstances, you must realize that you have with-
in you forces and powers that you can set into

The Law of Attraction Works Unceasingly 21

operation that will triumph over any and all ap-
parent or temporary losses. Set these forces into
operation and you will then be placing a magnet
that will draw to you a situation that may be far
better than the one you have lost, and the time may
soon come when you will be even thankful that you
lost the old one.

Recognize, working in and through you, the same
Infinite Power that creates and governs all things
in the universe, the same Infinite Power that gov-
erns the endless systems of worlds in space. Send
out your thought, — thought is a force, and it has
occult power of unknown proportions when rightly
used and wisely directed, — send out your thought
that the right situation or the right work will come
to you at the right time, in the right way, and that
you will recognize it when it comes. Hold to this
thought, never allow it to weaken, hold to it, and
continually water it with firm expectation. You in
this way put your advertisement into a psychical, a
spiritual newspaper, a paper that has not a limited
circulation, but one that will make its way not only
to the utmost bounds of the earth, but of the very
universe itself. It is an advertisement, moreover,
which if rightly placed on your part, will be far
more effective than any advertisement you could
possibly put into any printed sheet, no matter what
claims are made in regard to its being " the great
advertising medium." In the degree that you come
into this realization and live in harmony with the

22 This Mystical Life of Ours

higher laws and forces, in that degree will you be
able to do this effectively.

If you wish to look through the " want " columns
of the newspapers, then do it, but not in the ordinary
way. Put the higher forces into operation and thus
place it on a higher basis.

If you get the situation and it does not prove to
be exactly what you want, if you feel that you are
capable of filling a better one, then the moment you
enter upon it take the attitude of mind that this
situation is the stepping-stone that will lead you to
one that will be still better. Hold this thought
steadily, affirm it, believe it, expect it, and all the
time be faithful, absolutely faithful to the situation
in which you are at present placed. If you are not
faithful to it then the chances are that it will not
be the stepping-stone to something better, but to
something poorer. If you are faithful to it, the
time may soon come when you will be glad and
thankful, when you will rejoice, that you lost your
old position.

In Tune with the Infinite.

VII.
THE LAW OF PROSPERITY.

This is the law of prosperity : When apparent ad-
versity comes, be not cast down by it, but make the
best of it, and always look forward for better
things, for conditions more prosperous. To hold
yourself in this attitude of mind is to set into opera-
tion subtle, silent, and irresistible forces that sooner
or later will actualize in material form that which
is today merely an idea. But ideas have occult
power, and ideas, when rightly planted and rightly
tended, are the seeds that actualize material condi-
tions.

Never give a moment to complaint, but utilize
the time that would otherwise be spent in this way
in looking forward and actualizing the conditions
you desire. Suggest prosperity to yourself. See
yourself in a prosperous condition. Affirm that you
will before long be in a prosperous condition. Af-
firm it calmly and quietly, but strongly and con-
fidently. Believe it, believe it absolutely. Expect
it— keep it continually watered with expectation.
You thus make yourself a magnet to attract the
things that you desire. Don't be afraid to suggest,
to affirm these things, for by so doing you put forth
an ideal which will begin to clothe itself in material

24 This Mystical Life of Ours

form. In this way you are utilizing agents among
the most subtle and powerful in the universe. If
you are particularly desirous for anything that you
feel it is good and right for you to have, something
that will broaden your life or that will increase
your usefulness to others, simply hold the thought
that at the right time, in the right way, and through
the right instrumentality, there will come to you or
there will open up for you the way whereby you can
attain what you desire.

Don't fold your hands and expect to see things
drop into your lap, but set into operation the higher
forces and then take hold of the first thing that
offers itself. Do what your hands find to do, and
do it well. If this work is not thoroughly satisfac-
tory to you, then affirm, believe, and expect that it
is the agency that will lead you to something bet-
ter. " The basis for attracting the best of all the
world can give to you is to first surround, own, and
live in these things in mind, or what is falsely called
imagination. All so-called imaginings are realities
and forces of unseen element. Live in mind in a
palace and gradually palatial surroundings will
gravitate to you. But so living is not pining, or
longing, or complainingly wishing. It is when you
are ' down in the world,' calmly and persistently
seeing yourself as up. It is when you are now com-
pelled to eat from a tin plate, regarding that tin
plate as only the certain step to one of silver. It is

The Law of Prosperity 25

not envying and growling at other people who have
silver plate. That growling is just so much capital
stock taken from the bank account of mental force."

A friend who knows the power of the interior
forces, and whose life is guided in every detail by
them, has given a suggestion in this form: When
you are in the arms of the bear, even though he
is hugging you, look him in the face and laugh, but
all the time keep your eye on the bull. If you allow
all of your attention to be given to the work of the
bear, the bull may get entirely out of your sight.
In other words, if you yield to adversity the chances
are that it will master you, but if you recognize
in yourself the power of mastery over conditions
then adversity will yield to you, and will be changed
into prosperity. If when it comes you calmly and
quietly recognize it, and use the time that might
otherwise be spent in regrets, and fears, and fore-
bodings, in setting into operation the powerful
forces within you, it will soon take its leave.

Faith, absolute dogmatic faith, is the only law of
true success. When we recognize the fact that a
man carries his success or his failure with him, and
that it does not depend upon outside conditions, we
will come into the possession of powers that will
quickly change outside conditions into agencies
that make for success. When we come into this
higher realization and bring our lives into com-
plete harmony with the higher laws, we will then
be able so to focus and direct the awakened interior

26 This Mystical Life of Ours

forces, that they will go out and return laden with
that for which they are sent. We will then be
great enough to attract success, and it will not al-
ways be apparently just a little ways ahead. We
can then establish in ourselves a centre so strong
that instead of running hither and thither for this
or that, we can stay at home and draw to us the
conditions we desire. If we firmly establish and
hold to this centre, things will seem continually to

come our way.

• • • • •

In Time with the Infinite,

VIII.

THE LAW OF HABIT-FORMING.

Have we it within our power to determine at
all times what types of habits shall take form in
our lives? In other words, is habit-forming, char-
acter-building, a matter of mere chance, or have
we it within our own control? We have, entirely
and absolutely.

For there is a simple, natural, and thoroughly
scientific method that all should know. A method
whereby old, undesirable, earth-binding habits can
be broken, and new, desirable, heaven-lifting hab-
its can be acquired, — a method whereby life in part
or in its totality can be changed, provided one is
sufficiently in earnest to know, and, knowing it, to
apply the law.

Thought is the force underlying all. And what
do we mean by this? Simply this: Your every
act — every conscious act — is preceded by a thought.
Your dominating thoughts determine your domi-
nating actions. The acts repeated crystallize them-
selves into the habit. The aggregate of your hab-
its is your character. Whatever, then, you would
have your acts, you must look well to the char-
acter of the thought you entertain. Whatever act

28 This Mystical Life of Ours

you would not do, — habit you would not acquire, —
you must look well to it that you do not entertain
the type of thought that will give birth to this act,
this habit.

It is a simple psychological law that any type
of thought, if entertained for a sufficient length of
time, will, by and by, reach the motor tracks of the
brain, and finally burst forth into action. Murder
can be and many times is committed in this way,
the same as all undesirable things are done. On
the other hand, the greatest powers are grown, the
most God-like characteristics are engendered, the
most heroic acts are performed in the same way.

The thing clearly to understand is this : That the
thought is always parent to the act. Now, we
have it entirely in our own hands to determine ex-
actly what thoughts we entertain. In the realm of
our own minds we have absolute control, or we
should have, and if at any time we have not, then
there is a method by which we can gain control,
and in the realm of the mind become thorough

masters.

• • • • •

Here let us refer to that law of the mind which
is the same as is the law in connection with the re-
flex nerve system of the body, the law which says
that whenever one does a certain thing in a certain
way it is easier to do the same thing in the same
way the next time, and still easier the next, and the
next, and the next, until in time it comes to pass

The Law of Habit-Forming 29

that no effort is required, or no effort worth speak-
ing of; but on the contrary, to do the opposite
would require the effort. The mind carries with it
the power that perpetuates its own type of thought,
the same as the body carries with it through the
reflex nerve system the power which perpetuates
and makes continually easier its own particular
acts. Thus a simple effort to control one's thoughts,
a simple setting about it, even if at first failure is
the result, and even if for a time failure seems to be
about the only result, will in time, sooner or later,
bring him to the point of easy, full, and complete
control.

Each one, then, can grow the power of deter-
mining, controlling his thought, the power of de-
termining what types of thought he shall and what
types he shall not entertain. For let us never part
in mind with this fact, that every earnest effort
along any line makes the end aimed at just a little
easier for each succeeding effort, even if, as has
been said, apparent failure is the result of the earlier
efforts. This is a case where even failure is suc-
cess, for the failure is not in the effort, and every
earnest effort adds an increment of power that will
eventually accomplish the end aimed at.

Character-Building Thought Power.

IX.

ACTUALIZING ONE'S IDEALS.

There is nothing more true in connection with
human life than that we grow into the likeness of
those things we contemplate. Literally and scien-
tifically and necessarily true is it that, "as a man
thinketh in his heart, so is he." The " is " part is
his character. His character is the sum total of
his habits. His habits have been formed by his con-
scious acts; but every conscious act is, as we have
found, preceded by a thought. And so we have it
— thought on the one hand, character, life, destiny
on the other. And simple it becomes when we bear
in mind that it is simply the thought of the present
moment, and the next moment when it is upon us,
and then the next, and so on through all time.

One can in this way attain to whatever ideals he
would attain to. Two steps are necessary: first, as
the days pass, to form one's ideals ; and second, to
follow them continually whatever may arise, wher-
ever they may lead him. Always remember that
the great and strong character is the one who is
ever ready to sacrifice the present pleasure for the
future good. He who will thus follow his highest
ideals as they present themselves to him day after
day, year after year, will find that as Dante, follow-

Actualizing One's Ideals 31

ing his beloved from world to world, finally found
her at the gates of Paradise, so he will find himself
eventually at the same gates. Life is not, we may
say, for mere passing pleasure, but for the highest
unfoldment that one can attain to, the noblest char-
acter that one can grow, and for the greatest service
that one can render to all mankind. In this, how-
ever, we will find the highest pleasure, for in this
the only real pleasure lies.

The question is not, What are the conditions in
our lives ? but, How do we meet the conditions that
we find there? And whatever the conditions are,
it is unwise and profitless to look upon them, even
if they are conditions that we would have other-
wise, in the attitude of complaint, for complaint will
bring depression, and depression will weaken and
possibly even kill the spirit that would engender the
power that would enable us to bring into our lives
an entirely new set of conditions.

Each one is so apt to think that his own con-
ditions, his own trials or troubles or sorrows, or his
own struggles, as the case may be, are greater than
those of the great mass of mankind, or possibly
greater than those of any one else in the world.
He forgets that each one has his own peculiar trials
or troubles or sorrows to bear, or struggles in hab-
its to overcome, and that his is but the common lot
of all the human race. We are apt to make the

32 This Mystical Life of Ours

mistake in this — in that we see and feel keenly our
own trials, or adverse conditions, or characteristics
to be overcome, while those of others we do not see
so clearly, and hence we are apt to think that they
are not at all equal to our own. Each has his own
problems to work out. Each must work out his
own problems. Each must grow the insight that
will enable him to see what the causes are that have
brought the unfavorable conditions into his life;
each must grow the strength that will enable him
to face these conditions, and to set into operation
forces that will bring about a different set of condi-
tions. We may be of aid to one another by way of
suggestion, by way of bringing to one another a
knowledge of certain higher laws and forces, — laws
and forces that will make it easier to do that which
we would do. The doing, however, must be done
by each one for himself.

Character-Building Thought Power.

FAITH AND PRAYER— THEIR NATURE.

What, shall we ask, is the place, what the value,
of prayer ? Prayer, as every act of devotion, brings
us into an ever greater conscious harmony with the
Infinite, the one pearl of great price ; for it is this
harmony which brings all other things. Prayer is
the soul's sincere desire, and thus is its own answer,
as the sincere desire made active and accompanied
by faith sooner or later gives place to realization;
for faith is an invisible and invincible magnet, and
attracts to itself whatever it fervently desires and
calmly and persistently expects. This is absolute,
and the results will be absolute in exact proportion
as this operation of the thought forces, as this faith
is absolute, and relative in exact proportion as it is
relative. The Master said, What things soever ye
desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them
and ye shall have them. Can any law be more
clearly enunciated, can anything be more definite
and more absolute than this? According to thy
faith be it unto thee. Do we at times fail in obtain-
ing the results we desire? The fault, the failure,
lies not in the law but in ourselves. Regarded in its
right and true light, than prayer there is nothing

34 This Mystical Life of Ours >

more scientific, nothing more valuable, nothing more
effective.

This conscious realization of oneness with the
Infinite Life is of all things the one thing to be de-
sired ; for, when this oneness is realized and lived in,
all other things follow in its train, there are no de-
sires that shall not be realized, for God has planted
in the human breast no desire without its correspond-
ing means of realization. No harm can come nigh,
nothing can touch us, there will be nothing to fear ;
for we shall thus attract only the good. And what-
ever changes time may bring, understanding the law,
we shall always expect something better, and thus,
set into operation the forces that will attract that
something, realizing that many times angels go out
that archangels may enter in; and this is always
true in the case of the life of this higher realization.
And why should we have any fear whatever, — fear
even for the nation, as is many times expressed?
God is behind His world, in love and with infinite
care and watchfulness working out His great and
almighty plans ; and whatever plans men may devise,
He will when the time is ripe either frustrate and
shatter, or aid and push through to their most per-
fect culmination, — frustrate and shatter if contrary
to, aid and actualize if in harmony with His.

These facts, the facts relating to the powers that
come with the higher awakening, have been dealt
with somewhat fully, to show that the matters along

Faith and Prayer — Their Nature 35

the lines of man's interior, intuitive, spiritual,
thought, soul life, instead of being, as they are so
many times regarded, merely indefinite, sentimental,
or impractical, are, on the contrary, powerfully,
omnipotently real, and are of all practical things in
the world the most practical, and, in the truest and
deepest sense, the only truly practical things there
are. And pre-eminently is this true when we look
with a long range of vision, past the mere to-day,
to the final outcome, to the time when that transi-
tion we are accustomed to call death takes place,
and all accumulations and possessions material are
left behind, and the soul takes with it only the un-
foldment and growth of the real life ; and unless it
has this, when all else must be left behind, it goes
out poor indeed. And a most wonderful and beau-
tiful fact of it all is this: that all growth, all ad-
vancement, all attainment made along the lines of
the spiritual, the soul, the real life, is so much made
forever, and can never be lost.

What All the World's A-Seeking.

XI.

THE PETTY PERSONAL AND THE
LARGER UNIVERSAL.

When the step from the personal to the imper-
sonal, from the personal, the individual, to the uni-
versal, is once made, the great solution of life has
come ; and by this same step one enters at once into
the realm of all power. When this is done, and one
fully realizes the fact that the greatest life is the life
spent in the service of all mankind, and then when
he vitally grasps that great eternal principle of right,
of truth, of justice, that runs through all the uni-
verse, and which, though temporarily it may seem
to be perverted, always and with never an excep-
tion eventually prevails, and that with an omnip-
otent power, — he then holds the key to all situations.

A king of this nature goes about his. work ab-
solutely regardless of what men may say or hear or
think or do; for he himself has absolutely nothing
to gain or nothing to lose, and nothing of this na-
ture can come near him or touch him, for he is
standing not in the personal, but in the universal.
He is then in God's work, and the very God-powers
are his, and it seems as if the very angels of heaven
come to minister unto him and to move things his
way; and this is true, very true, for he himself is

The Petty Personal and the Larger Universal 37

simply moving God's way, and when this is so, the
certainty of the outcome is absolute.

How often did the Master say, " I seek not to do
mine own will, but the will of the Father who sent
me " ! Here is the world's great example of the
life out of the personal and in the universal, hence
his great power. The same has been true of all the
saviors, the prophets, the seers, the sages, and the
leaders in the world's history, of all of truly great
and lasting power.

He who would then come into the secret of power
must come from the personal into the universal, and
with this comes not only great power, but also free-
dom from the vexations and perplexities that rise
from the misconstruing of motives, the opinions of
others ; for such a one cares nothing as to what men
may say, or hear, or think, or do, so long as he is
true to the great principles of right and truth before
him. And, if we will search carefully, we shall
find that practically all the perplexities and difficul-
ties of life have their origin on the side of the per-
sonal.

Much is said to young men to-day about success
in life, — success generally though, as the world
calls success. It is well, however, always to bear
in mind the fact that there is a success which is a
miserable, a deplorable failure; while, on the other
hand, there is a failure which is a grand, a noble,
a God-like success. And one crying need of the
age is that young men be taught the true dignity,

38 This Mystical Life of Ours

nobility, and power of such a failure, — such a fail-
ure in the eyes of the world to-day, but such a suc-
cess in the eyes of God and the coming ages. When
this is done, there will be among us more prophets,
more saviors, more men of grand and noble stature,
who with a firm and steady hand will hold the
lighted torch of true advancement high up among
the people ; and they will be those whom the people
will gladly follow, for they will be those who will
speak and move with authority, true sons of God,
true brothers of men. A man may make his
millions and his life be a failure still.

What All the World's AS e eking.

XII.

THE POEM HANGS ON THE BERRY-
BUSH.

To live undisturbed by passing occurrences you
must first find your own centre. You must then be
firm in your own centre, and so rule the world
from within. He who does not himself condition
circumstances allows the process to be reversed,
and becomes a conditioned circumstance. Find
your centre and live in it. Surrender it to no per-
son, to no thing. In the degree that you do this
will you find yourself growing stronger and stronger
in it. And how can one find his centre? By
realizing his oneness with the Infinite Power, and
by living continually in this realization.

But if you do not rule from your own centre,
if you invest this or that with the power of bring-
ing you annoyance, or evil, or harm, then take what
it brings, but cease your railings against the eternal
goodness and beneficence of all things.

"I swear the earth shall surely be complete
To him or her who shall be complete;
The earth remains jagged and broken
Only to him who remains jagged and broken."

If the windows of your soul are dirty and
streaked, covered with matter foreign to them,

4<D This Mystical Life of Ours

then the world as you look out of them will be to
you dirty and streaked and out of order. Cease
your complainings, however; keep your pessimism,
your " poor, unfortunate me " to yourself, lest you
betray the fact that your windows are badly in need
of something. But know that your friend, who
keeps his windows clean, that the Eternal Sun may
illumine all within and make visible all without, —
know that he lives in a different world from yours.
Then, go wash your windows, and instead of
longing for some other world, you will discover the
wonderful beauties of this world ; and if you don't
find transcendent beauties on every hand here, the
chances are that you will never find them any-
where.

"The poem hangs on the berry-bush
When comes the poet's eye,
And the whole street is a masquerade
When Shakspeare passes by."

This same Shakspeare, whose mere passing
causes all this commotion, is the one who put into
the mouth of one of his creations the words : " The
fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in our-
selves, that we are underlings." And the great
work of his own life is right good evidence that
he realized full well the truth of the facts we are
considering. And again he gave us a great truth
in keeping with what we are considering when he
said:

The Poem Hangs on the Berry-Bush 41

"Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By Rearing to attempt."

There is probably no agent that brings us more
undesirable conditions than fear. We should live
in fear of nothing, nor will we when we come fully
to know ourselves. An old French proverb runs:

"Some of your griefs you have cured,

And the sharpest you still have survived;
But what torments of pain you endured
From evils that never arrived."

Fear and lack of faith go hand in hand. The
one is born of the other. Tell me how much one is
given to fear, and I will tell you how much he lacks
in faith. Fear is a most expensive guest to enter-
tain, the same as worry is: so expensive are they
that no one can afford to entertain them. We in-
vite what we fear, the same as, by_a_different atti-
tude of mind, we invite and attract the influences
and conditions we desire. The mind dominated by
fear opens the door for the entrance of the very
things, for the actualization of the very conditions
it fears.

"Where are you going ?" asked an Eastern pil-
grim on meeting the plague one day. " I am going
to Bagdad to kill five thousand people," was the
reply. A few days later the same pilgrim met the
plague returning. " You told me you were going
to Bagdad to kill five thousand people/ ' said he,

42 This Mystical Life of Ours

"but instead, you killed fifty thousand." "No,"
said the plague, " / killed only five thousand, as
I told you I would; the others died of fright"

Fear can paralyze every muscle in the body.
Fear affects the flow of the blood, likewise the
normal and healthy action of all the life forces.
Fear can make the body rigid, motionless, and
powerless to move.

In Tune with the Infinite.

XIII.

THE INFLUENCE OF OUR PREVAILING
MENTAL STATES UPON OTHERS.

Not only do we attract to ourselves the things
we fear, but we also aid in attracting to others the
conditions we in our own minds hold them in fear
of. This we do in proportion to the strength of
our own thought, and in the degree that they are
sensitively organized and so influenced by our
thought, and this, although it be unconscious both
on their part and on ours.

Children, and especially when very young, are,
generally speaking, more sensitive to their sur-
rounding influences than grown people are. Some
are veritable little sensitive plates, registering the
influences about them, and embodying them as they
grow. How careful in their prevailing mental
states then should be those who have them in charge,
and especially how careful should a mother be
during the time she is carrying the child, and when
every thought, every mental as well as emotional
state has its direct influence upon the life of the
unborn child. Let parents be careful how they hold
a child, either younger or older, in the thought of
fear. This is many times done, unwittingly on
their part, through anxiety, and at times through

44 This Mystical Life of Ours

what might well be termed over-care, which is fully
as bad as under-care.

I know of a number of cases where a child has
been so continually held in the thought of fear lest
this or that condition come upon him, that the very
things that were feared have been drawn to him,
which probably otherwise never would have come
at all. Many times there has been no adequate
basis for the fear. In case there is a basis, then
far wiser is it to take exactly the opposite attitude,
so as to neutralize the force at work, and then to
hold the child in the thought of wisdom and
strength that it may be able to meet the condition
and master it, instead of being mastered by it.

But a day or two ago a friend was telling me
of an experience of his own life in this connection.
At a period when he was having a terrific struggle
with a certain habit, he was so continually held in
the thought of fear by his mother and the young
lady to whom he was engaged, — the engagement
to be consummated at the end of a certain period,
the time depending on his proving his mastery, —
that he, very sensitively organized, continually felt
the depressing and weakening effects of their nega-
tive thoughts. He could always tell exactly how
they felt toward him ; he was continually influenced
and weakened by their fear, by their questionings,
by their suspicions, all of which had the effect of
lessening the sense of his own power, all of which
had an endeavor-paralyzing influence upon him.

Prevailing Mental States upon Others 45

And so instead of their begetting courage and
strength in him, they brought him to a still greater
realization of his own weakness and the almost
worthless use of struggle.

Here were two who loved him dearly, and who
would have done anything and everything to help
him gain the mastery, but who, ignorant of the
silent, subtle, ever-working and all-telling power
of the thought forces, instead of imparting to him
courage, instead of adding to his strength, dis-
armed him of this, and then added an additional
weakness from without. In this way the battle for
him was made harder in a three-fold degree.

Fear and worry and all kindred mental states
are too expensive for any person, man, woman, or
child, to entertain or indulge in. Fear paralyzes
healthy action, worry corrodes and pulls down the
organism, and will finally tear it to pieces. Noth-
ing is to be gained by it, but everything to be lost.
Long-continued grief at any loss will do the same.
Each brings its own peculiar type of ailment. An
inordinate love of gain, a close-fisted, hoarding
disposition will have kindred effects. Anger, jeal-
ousy, malice, continual fault-finding, lust, has each
its own peculiar corroding, weakening, tearing-
down effects.

We shall find that not only are happiness and
prosperity concomitants of righteousness, — living
in harmony with the higher laws, but bodily health
as well. The great Hebrew seer enunciated a won-

46 This Mystical Life of Ours

derful chemistry of life when he said, — " As right-
eousness tendeth to life, so he that pursueth evil,
pursueth it to his own death." On the other hand,
" In the way of righteousness is life ; and in the
pathway thereof there is no death." The time will
come when it will be seen that this means far more
than most people dare even to think as yet. "It
rests with man to say whether his soul shall be
housed in a stately mansion of ever-growing splen-
dor and beauty, or in a hovel of his own building,
— a hovel at last ruined and abandoned to decay."
The bodies of almost untold numbers, living their
one-sided, unbalanced lives, are every year, through
these influences, weakening and falling by the way-
side long before their time. Poor, poor houses!
Intended to be beautiful temples, brought to deso-
lation by their ignorant, reckless, deluded tenants.
Poor houses!

In Tune with the Infinite.

XIV.
SAVIORS ONE OF ANOTHER.

And in the same sense we are all the saviors one
of another, or may become so. A sudden emer-
gency arises, and I stand faltering and weak with
fear. My friend beside me is strong and fearless.
He sees the emergency. He summons up all the
latent powers within him, and springs forth to meet
it. This sublime example arouses me, calls my
latent powers into activity, when but for him I
might not have known them there. I follow his
example. I now know my powers, and know them
forever after. Thus, in this, my friend has become
my savior.

I am weak in some point of character, — vacil-
lating, yielding, stumbling, falling, continually eat-
ing the bitter fruit of it all. My friend is strong,
he has gained thorough self-mastery. The majesty
and beauty of power are upon his brow. I see his
example, I love his life, I am influenced by his
power. My soul longs and cries out for the same.
A supreme effort of will — that imperial master that
will take one anywhere when rightly directed —
arises within me, it is born at last, and it calls all
the soul's latent powers into activity; and instead
of stumbling I stand firm, instead of giving over in

48 This Mystical Life of Ours

weakness I stand firm and master, I enter into the
joys of full self-mastery, and through this into the
mastery of all things besides. And thus my friend
has again become my savior.

With the new power I have acquired through
the example and influence of my savior-friend, I,
in turn, stand before a friend who is struggling,
who is stumbling and in despair. He sees, he feels,
the power of my strength. He longs for, his soul
cries out for the same. His interior forces are
called into activity, he now knows his powers ; and
instead of the slave, he becomes the master, and
thus I, in turn, have become his savior. Oh, the
wonderful sense of sublimity, the mighty feelings
of responsibility, the deep sense of power and peace
the recognition of this fact should bring to each
and all.

God works through the instrumentality of human
agency. Then forever away with that old, shrivel-
ling, weakening, dying, and devilish idea that we
are poor worms of the dust! We may or we may
not be: it all depends upon the self. The moment
we believe we are we become such ; and as long as
we hold to the belief we will be held to this iden-
tity, and will act and live as such. The moment,
however, we recognize our divinity, our higher, our
God-selves, and the fact that we are the saviors of
our fellow-men, we become saviors, and stand and
move in the midst of a majesty and beauty and
power that of itself proclaims us as such.

Saviors One of Another 49

There is a prevalent idea to the effect that over-
coming in this sense necessarily implies more or less
of a giving up, — that it means something possibly
on the order of asceticism. On the contrary, the
highest, truest, keenest pleasures the human soul
can know, it finds only after the higher is entered
upon and has commenced its work of mastery ; and,
instead of there being a giving up of any kind, there
is a great law which says that the lower always and
of its own accord falls away before the higher.
What All the World's A-Seeking.

XV.

NOT REPRESSION, BUT SELF-MASTERY.

From what has been said let it not be inferred
that the body, the physical, material life is to be de-
spised or looked down upon. This, rather let it be
said, is one of the crying errors of the times, and
prolific of a vast amount of error, suffering, and
shame. On the contrary, it should be thought all
the more highly of: it should be loved and devel-
oped to its highest perfections, beauties, and powers.
God gave us the body not in vain. It is just as
holy and beautiful as the spirit itself. It is merely
the outward material manifestation of the individu*
alized spirit; and we by our hourly thoughts and
emotions are building it, are determining its condi-
tions, its structure, and appearance.

Every part, every organ, every function of the
body is just as clean, just as beautiful, just as sweet,
and just as holy as every other part; and it is only
by virtue of man's perverted ways of looking at
some that they become otherwise, and the moment
they so become, abuses, ill uses, suffering, and shame
creep in.

Not repression, but elevation. Would that this
could be repeated a thousand times over! Not re-

Not Repression, but Self-Mastery 51

pression, but elevation. Every part, every organ,
every function of the body is given for use, but not
for misuse or abuse; and the moment the latter
takes place in connection with any function it loses
its higher powers of use, and there goes with this
the higher powers of true enjoyment.

No, a knowledge of the spiritual realities of life
prohibits asceticism, repression, the same as it pro-
hibits license and perverted use. To err on the one
side is just as contrary to the ideal life as to err on
the other. All things are for a purpose, all should
be used and enjoyed ; but all should be rightly used,
that they may be fully enjoyed.

It is the threefold life and development that is
wanted, — physical, mental, spiritual. This gives the
rounded life, and he or she who fails in any one
comes short of the perfect whole. The physical
has its uses just the same and is just as important
as the others. The great secret of the highly suc-
cessful life is, however, to infuse the mental and
the physical with the spiritual; in other words, to
spiritualize all, and so raise all to the highest possi-
bilities and powers.

It is the all-around, fully developed we want, —
not the ethereal, pale-blooded man and woman, but
the man and woman of flesh and blood, for action
and service here and now, — the man and woman
strong and powerful, with all the faculties and func-
tions fully unfolded and used, all in a royal and

52 This Mystical Life of Ours

bounding condition, but all rightly subordinated.
The man and the woman of this kind, with the
imperial hand of mastery upon all, — standing, mov-
ing thus like a king, nay, like a very God,— such
is the man and such is the woman of power. Such
is the ideal life: anything else is one-sided, and
falls short of it.

. a • • «

What All the World's A-Seeking.

XVI.
THOUGHTS ARE FORCES.

Thought is at the bottom of all progress or retro-
gression, of all success or failure, of all that is de-
sirable or undesirable in human life. The type of
thought we entertain both creates and draws con-
ditions that crystallize about it, conditions exactly
the same in nature as is the thought that gives them
form. Thoughts are forces, and each creates of
its kind, whether we realize it or not. The great
law of the drawing power of the mind, which says
that like creates like, and that like attracts like, is
continually working in every human life, for it is
one of the great immutable laws of the universe.
For one to take time to see clearly the things he
would attain to, and then to hold that ideal stead-
ily and continually before his mind, never allowing
faith— his positive thought- forces— to give way to
or to be neutralized by doubts and fears, and then
to set about doing each day what his hands find to
do, never complaining, but spending the time that
he would otherwise spend in complaint in focusing
his thought-forces upon the ideal that his mind
has built, will sooner or later bring about the full
materialization of that for which he sets out.

There are those who, when they begin to grasp

54 This Mystical Life of Ours

the fact that there is what we may term a "science
of thought," who, when they begin to realize that
through the instrumentality of our interior, spir-
itual thought-forces we have the power of gradu-
ally moulding the every-day conditions of life as we
would have them, in their early enthusiasm are not
able to see results as quickly as they expect, and
are apt to think, therefore, that after all there is
not very much in that which has but newly come
to their knowledge. They must remember, how-
ever, that in endeavoring to overcome an old or to
grow a new habit, everything cannot be done all
at once.

In the degree that we attempt to use the thought-
forces do we continually become able to use them
more effectively. Progress is slow at first, more
rapid as we proceed. Power grows by using, or,
in other words, using brings a continually increas-
ing power. This is governed by law the same as
are all things in our lives, and all things in the uni-
verse about us. Every act and advancement made
by the musician is in full accordance with law. No
one commencing the study of music can, for ex-
ample, sit down to the piano and play the piece of
a master at the first effort. He must not conclude,
however, nor does he conclude, that the piece of
the master cannot be played by him, or, for that
matter, by any one. He begins to practise the piece.
The law of the mind that we have already noticed
comes to his aid, whereby his mind follows the
music more readily, more rapidly, and more surely,

Thoughts are Forces 55

each succeeding time, and there also comes into
operation and to his aid the law underlying the ac-
tion of the reflex nerve system of the body, which
we have also noticed, whereby his fingers coordi-
nate their movements with the movements of his
mind, more readily, more rapidly, and more accu-
rately each succeeding time; until by and by the
time comes when that which he stumbles through
at first, that in which there is no harmony, nothing
but discord, finally reveals itself as the music of the
master, the music that thrills and moves masses of
men and women. So it is in the use of the thought-
forces. It is the reiteration, the constant reiteration
of the thought that grows the power of continually
stronger thought-focusing, and that finally brings
manifestation.

Character-Building Thought Poiver.

XVII.
ALL LIFE FROM WITHIN.

All life is from within out. This is something
that cannot be reiterated too often. The springs of
life are all from within. This being true, it would
be well for us to give more time to the inner life
than we are accustomed to give to it, especially in
this Western World.

There is nothing that will bring us such abun-
dant returns as to take a little time in the quiet each
day of our lives. We need this to get the kinks out
of our minds and hence out of our lives. We need
this to form better the higher ideals of life. We
need this in order to see clearly in mind the things
upon which we would concentrate and focus the
thought-forces. We need this in order to make
continually anew and to keep our conscious connec-
tion with the Infinite. We need this in order that
the rush and hurry of our every-day life does not
keep us away from the conscious realization of the
fact that the spirit of Infinite life and power that
is back of all, working in and through all, the life
of all, is the life of our life, and the source of our
power ; and that outside of this we have no life and
we have no power. To realize this fact fully, and
to live in it consciously at all times, is to find the

All Life from Within $7

kingdom of God, which is essentially an inner
kingdom, and can never be anything else. The
kingdom of heaven is to be found only within, and
this is done once for all, and in a manner in which
it cannot otherwise be done, when we come into the
conscious, living realization of the fact that in our
real selves we are essentially one with the Divine
life, and open ourselves continually so that this
Divine life can speak to and manifest through us.
In this way we come into the condition where we
are continually walking with God. In this way the
consciousness of God becomes a living reality in
our lives ; and in the degree in which it becomes
a reality does it bring us into the realization of con-
tinually increasing wisdom, insight, and power.
This consciousness of God in the soul of man is the
essence, indeed the sum and substance of all religion.
This identifies religion with every act and every
moment of every-day life. That which does not
identify itself with every moment of every' day and
with every act of life is religion in name only and
not in reality.

It is the attitude of the child that is necessary
before we can enter into the kingdom of heaven.
As it was said, " Except ye become as little chil-
dren, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven."
For we then realize that of ourselves we can do
nothing, but that it is only as we realize that it is
the Divine life and power working within us, and

58 This Mystical Life of Ours

it is only as we open ourselves that it may work
through us, that we are or can do anything. It is
thus that the simple life, which is essentially the life
of the greatest enjoyment and the greatest attain-
ment, is entered upon.

In the Orient the people as a class take far more
time in the quiet, in the silence, than we take.
Some of them carry this possibly to as great an
extreme as we carry the opposite, with the result
that they do not actualize and objectify in the outer
life the things they dream in the inner life. We
give so much time to the activities of the outer life
that we do not take sufficient time in the quiet to
form in the inner, spiritual thought-life the ideals
and the conditions that we would have actualized
and manifested in the outer life. The result is that
we take life in a kind of haphazard way, taking it
as it comes, thinking not very much about it until,
perhaps, pushed by some bitter experiences, instead
of moulding it, through the agency of the inner
forces, exactly as we would have it. We need to
strike the happy balance between the custom in this
respect of the Eastern and Western worlds, and
go to the extreme of neither the one nor the other.

If the Oriental would do his contemplating, and
then get up and do his work, he would be in a
better condition ; he would be living a more normal
and satisfactory life. If we in the Occident would
take more time from the rush and activity of life
for contemplation, for meditation, for idealization,

All Life from Within 59

for becoming acquainted with our real selves, and
then go about our work manifesting the powers of
our real selves, we would be far better off, because
we would be living a more natural, a more normal
life. To find one's centre, to become centred in the
Infinite, is the first great essential of every satis-
factory life ; and then to go out, thinking, speaking,
working, loving, living, from this centre.

Character-Building Thought Power.

XVIII.

HEREDITY AND THE HIGHER POWER.

In the highest character-building, such as we
have been considering, there are those who feel they
are handicapped by what we term heredity. In a
sense they are right; in another sense they are
totally wrong. It is along the same lines as the
thought which many before us had inculcated in
them through the couplet in the New England
Primer : " In Adam's fall, we sinned all." Now,
in the first place, it is rather hard to understand
the justice of this if it is true. In the second place,
it is rather hard to understand why it is true. And
in the third place there is no truth in it at all. We
are now dealing with the real essential self, and,
however old Adam is, God is eternal. This means
you; it means me; it means every human soul.
When we fully realize this fact we see that heredity
is a reed that is easily broken. The life of every
one is in his own hands and he can make it in char-
acter, in attainment, in power, in divine self-reali-
zation, and hence in influence, exactly what he wills
to make it. All things that he most fondly dreams
of are his, or may become so if he is truly in ear-
nest; and as he rises more and more to his ideal,
and grows in the strength and influence of his char-

Heredity and the Higher Pozver 6 1

acter, he becomes an example and an inspiration
to all with whom he comes in contact; so that
through him the weak and faltering are encouraged
and strengthened ; so that those of low ideals and
of a low type of life instinctively and inevitably
have their ideals raised, and the ideals of no one
can be raised without its showing forth in his
outer life. As he advances in his grasp upon and
understanding of the power and potency of the
thought-forces, he finds that many times through
the process of mental suggestion he can be of tre-
mendous aid to one who is weak and struggling,
by sending to him now and then, and by continu-
ally holding him in the highest thought, in the
thought of the highest strength, wisdom, and love.

The one who takes sufficient time in the quiet
mentally to form his ideals, sufficient time to make
and to keep continually his conscious connection
with the Infinite, with the Divine life and forces,
is the one who is best adapted to the strenuous life.
He it is who can go out and deal with sagacity and
power with whatever issues may arise in the affairs
of every-day life. He it is who is building not for
the years, but for the centuries; not for time, but
for the eternities. And he can go out knowing not
whither he goes, knowing that the Divine life
within him will never fail him, but will lead him on
until he beholds the Father face to face.

He is building for the centuries because only
that which is the highest, the truest, the noblest,

62 This Mystical Life of Ours

and best will abide the test of the centuries. He
is building for eternity because when the transition
we call death takes place, life, character, self-
mastery, divine self-realization, — the only things
that the soul when stripped of everything else takes
with it, — he has in abundance. In life, or when the
time of the transition to another form of life comes,
he is never afraid, never fearful, because he knows
and realizes that behind him, within him, beyond
him, is the Infinite wisdom and love; and in this
he is eternally centred, and from it he can never be
separated. With Whittier he sings :

"I know not where His islands lift
Their fronded palms in air;
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care."
Character-Building Thought Power.

XIX.

CASTLES IN THE AIR.

In our very laboratory experiments we are dem-
onstrating the great fact that thoughts are forces.
They have form, and quality, and substance, and
power, and we are beginning to find that there is
what we may term a science of thought.

Everything in the material universe about us,
everything the universe has ever known, had its
origin first in thought. From this it took its form.
Every castle, every statue, every painting, every
piece of mechanism, everything had its birth, its
origin, first in the mind of the one who formed it
before it received its material expression or em-
bodiment. The very universe in which we live is
the result of the thought energies of God, the In-
finite Spirit that is back of all. And if it is true,
as we have found, that we in our true selves are in
essence the same, and in this sense are one with
the life of this Infinite Spirit, do we not then see
that in the degree that we come into a vital reali-
zation of this stupendous fact, we, through the
operation of our interior, spiritual, thought forces,
have in like sense creative power?

Everything exists in the unseen before it is mani-

64 This Mystical Life of Ours

fested or realized in the seen, and in this sense it
is true that the unseen things are the real, while
the things that are seen are the unreal. The un-
seen things are cause ; the seen things are effect.
The unseen things are the eternal; the seen things
are the changing, the transient.

The " power of the word " is a literal scientific
fact. Through the operation of our thought forces
we have creative power. The spoken word is noth-
ing more nor less than the outward expression of
the workings of these interior forces. The spoken
word is then, in a sense, the means whereby the
thought forces are focused and directed along any
particular line; and this concentration, this giving
them direction, is necessary before any outward or
material manifestation of their power can become
evident.

Much is said in regard to "building castles in
the air," and one who is given to this building is
not always looked upon with favor. But castles in
the air are always necessary before we can have
castles on the ground, before we can have castles
in which to live. The trouble with the one who
gives himself to building castles in the air is not
that he builds them in the air, but that he does not
go farther and actualize in life, in character, in
material form, the castles he thus builds. He does
a part of the work, a very necessary part ; but an-
other equally necessary part remains still undone.

There is in connection with the thought forces

Castles in the Air 6$

what we may term, the drawing power of mind,
and the great law operating here is one with that
great law of the universe, that like attracts like.
We are continually attracting to us from both the
seen and the unseen side of life, forces and condi-
tions most akin to those of our own thoughts.

This law is continually operating whether we are
conscious of it or not. We are all living, so to
speak, in a vast ocean of thought, and the very
atmosphere around us is continually filled with the
thought forces that are being continually sent or
that are continually going out in the form of
thought waves. We are all affected, more or less,
by these thought forces, either consciously or un-
consciously; and in the degree that we are more
or less sensitively organized, or in the degree that
we are negative and so are open to outside influ-
ences, rather than positive, thus determining what
influences shall enter into our realm of thought,
and hence into our lives.

In Tune with the Infinite.

XX.

THE ANCHOR OF THE SENSITIVELY
ORGANIZED.

There are those among us who are much more
sensitively organized than others. As an organism
their bodies are more finely, more sensitively con-
structed. These, generally speaking, are people
who are always more or less affected by the men-
talities of those with whom they come in contact,
or in whose company they are. A friend, the editor
of one of our great journals, is so sensitively or-
ganized that it is impossible for him to attend a
gathering, such as a reception, talk and shake hands
with a number of people during the course of the
evening, without taking on to a greater or less ex-
tent their various mental and physical conditions.
These affect him to such an extent that he is scarcely
himself and in his best condition for work until
some two or three days afterward.

Some think it unfortunate for one to be sensi-
tively organized. By no means. It is a good thing,
for one may thus be more open and receptive to
the higher impulses of the soul within, and to all
higher forces and influences from without. It may,
however, be unfortunate and extremely inconven-
ient to be so organized unless one recognize and

The Anchor of the Sensitively Organized 67

gain the power of closing himself, of making him-
self positive to all detrimental or undesirable in-
fluences. This power every one, however sensi-
tively organized he may be, can acquire.

This he can acquire through the mind's action.
And, moreover, there is no habit of more value
to anyone, be he sensitively or less sensitively or-
ganized, than that of occasionally taking and hold-
ing himself continually in the attitude of mind — I
close myself, I make myself positive to all things
below, and open and receptive to all higher influ-
ences, to all things above. By taking this attitude
of mind consciously now and then, it soon becomes
a habit, and if one is deeply in earnest in regard to
it, it puts into operation silent but subtle and power-
ful influences in effecting the desired results. In
this way all lower and undesirable influences from
both the seen and the unseen side of life are closed
out, while all higher influences are invited, and in
the degree that they are invited will they enter.

The fact of life in whatever form, means the con-
tinuance of life, even though the form be changed.
Life is the one eternal principle of the universe and
so always continues, even though the form of the
agency through which it manifests be changed.
" In my Father's house are many mansions." And
surely, because the individual has dropped, has
gone out of the physical body, there is no evidence
at all that the life does not go right on the same

6& This Mystical Life of Ours

as before, not commencing, — for there is no cessa-
tion,— but commencing in the other form, exactly
where it has left off here ; for all life is a continu-
ous evolution, step by step ; there one neither skips
nor jumps.

We cannot rationally believe other than that
those who have labored in love and with uplifting
power here are still laboring in the same way, and
in all probability with more earnest zeal, and with
still greater power.

" And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee,
open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord
opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw:
and, behold, the mountain zvas full of horses and
chariots of fire round about Elisha."

In Tune zvith the Infinite.

XXI.

HOW WE ATTRACT SUCCESS OR
FAILURE.

As science is so abundantly demonstrating to-
day,—the things that we see are but a very small
fraction of the things that are. The real, vital
forces at work in our own lives and in the world
about us are not seen by the ordinary physical eye.
Yet they are the causes of which all things we see
are merely the effects. Thoughts are forces; like
builds like, and like attracts like. For one to gov-
ern his thinking, then, is to determine his life.

Says one of deep insight into the nature of
things: "The law of correspondences between
spiritual and material things is wonderfully exact
in its workings. People ruled by the mood of gloom
attract to them gloomy things. People always dis-
couraged and despondent do not succeed in any-
thing, and live only by burdening some one else.
The hopeful, confident, and cheerful attract the
elements of success. A man's front or back yard
will advertise that man's ruling mood in the way it
is kept. A woman at home shows her state of mind
in her dress. A slattern advertises the ruling mood
of hopelessness, carelessness, and lack of system.
Rags, tatters, and dirt are always in the mind be-
fore being on the body. The thought that is most
put out brings its corresponding visible element to

yo This Mystical Life of Ours

crystallize about you as surely and literally as the
visible bit of copper in solution attracts to it the
invisible copper in that solution. A mind always
hopeful, confident, courageous, and determined on
its set purpose, and keeping itself to that purpose,
attracts to itself out of the elements things and
powers favorable to that purpose.

" Every thought of yours has a literal value to
you in every possible way. The strength of your
body, the strength of your mind, your success in
business, and the pleasure your company brings
others, depends on the nature of your thoughts.
. . . In whatever mood you set your mind does
your spirit receive of unseen substance in corre-
spondence with that mood. It is as much a chem-
ical law as a spiritual law. Chemistry is not con-
fined to the elements we see. The elements we do
not see with the physical eye outnumber ten thou-
sand times those we do see."

Faith is nothing more nor less than the operation
of the thought forces in the form of an earnest de-
sire, coupled with expectation as to its fulfillment.
And in the degree that faith, the earnest desire thus
sent out, is continually held to and watered by firm
expectation, in just that degree does it either draw
to itself, or does it change from the unseen into the
visible, from the spiritual into the material, that
for which it is sent.

In Tune with the Infinite.

XXII.
FEAR BRINGS FAILURE.

Nothing is more subtle than thought, nothing
more powerful, nothing more irresistible in its
operations, when rightly applied and held to with
a faith and fidelity that is unswerving, — a faith and
fidelity that never knows the neutralizing effects of
doubt and fear. If one have aspirations and a sin-
cere desire for a higher and better condition, so far
as advantages, facilities, associates, or any sur-
roundings or environments are concerned, and if
he continually send out his highest thought forces
for the realization of these desires, and continually
water these forces with firm expectation as to their
fulfillment, he will sooner or later find himself in
the realization of these desires, and all in accordance
with natural laws and forces.

Fear brings its own fulfillment the same as hope.
The same law operates, and if, as our good and
valued friend, Job, said when the darkest days
were setting in upon him, That which I feared has
come upon me, — was true, how much more surely
could he have brought about the opposite condi-
tions, those he would have desired, had he had
even the slightest realization of his own powers,
and had he acted the part of the master instead of

72 This Mystical Life of Ours

that of the servant, had he dictated terms instead
of being dictated to, and thus suffering the con-
sequences.

If one finds himself in any particular condition,
in the midst of any surroundings or environments
that are not desirable, that have nothing— at least
for any length of time — that is of value to him, for
his highest life and unfoldment, he has the remedy
entirely within his own grasp the moment he re-
alizes the power and supremacy of the forces of the
mind and spirit; and, unless he intelligently use
these forces, he drifts. Unless through them he
becomes master and dictates, he becomes the slave
and is dictated to, and so is driven hither and
thither.

Earnest, sincere desire, sincere aspiration for
higher and better conditions or means to realize
them, the thought-forces actively sent out for their
realization, these continually watered by firm ex-
pectation without allowing the contrary, neutraliz-
ing force of fear ever to enter in, — this, accom-
panied by rightly directed work and activity, will
bring about the fullest realization of one's highest
desires and aspirations with a certainty as absolute
as that effect follows cause. Each and every one
of us can thus make for himself ever higher and
higher conditions, can attract ever higher and higher
influences, can realize an ever higher and higher
ideal in life. These are the forces that are within
us, simply waiting to be recognized and used, — the

Fear Brings Failure 73

forces that we should infuse into and mould every-
day life with. The moment we vitally recognize
them, they become our servants and wait upon our
bidding.

We are born to be neither slaves nor beggars,
but to dominion and to plenty. This is our right-
ful heritage, if we will but recognize and lay claim
to it. Many a man and many a woman is to-day
longing for conditions better and higher than he
or she is in, who might be using the same time now
spent in vain, indefinite, spasmodic longings, in
putting into operation forces which, accompanied
by the right personal activity, would speedily bring
the fullest realization of his or her fondest dreams.
What All the World's A-Seeking.

XXIII.

HEART TRAINING THROUGH THE
ANIMAL WORLD.

It is an established fact that the training of the
intellect alone is not sufficient. Nothing in this
world can be truer than that the education of the
head, without the training of the heart, simply in-
creases one's power for evil, while the education
of the heart, along with the head, increases one's
power for good, and this, indeed, is the true educa-
tion.

Clearly we must begin with the child. The
lessons learned in childhood are the last to be for-
gotten. Let them be taught that the lower animals
are God's creatures, as they themselves are, put here
by a common Heavenly Father, each for its own
special purpose, and that they have the same right
to life and protection. Let them be taught that
principle recognised by all noble-hearted men, that
it is only a depraved, debased, and cowardly nature
that will injure an inferior, defenceless creature,
simply because it is in its power to do so, and that
there is no better, no grander test of true bravery
and nobility of character than one's treatment of
the lower animals.

I cannot refrain in this connection from quoting

Heart Training through the Animal World 7$

a sentence or two from Archdeacon Farrar which
have recently come to my notice :

44 Not once or twice only, at the seaside, have I
come across a sad and disgraceful sight — a sight
which haunts me still — a number of harmless sea-
birds lying defaced and dead upon the sand, their
white plumage red with blood, as they had been
tossed there, dead or Half-dead, their torture and
massacre having furnished a day's amusement to
heartless and senseless men. Amusement! I say
execrable amusement! All killing for mere kill-
ing's sake is execrable amusement. Can you im-
agine the stupid callousness, the utter insensibility
to mercy and beauty, of the man who, seeing those
bright, beautiful creatures as their white, immacu-
late wings flash in the sunshine over the blue waves,
can go out in a boat with his boys to teach them
to become brutes in character by finding amuse-
ment— I say, again, dis-humanising amusement —
by wantonly murdering these fair birds of God, or
cruelly wounding them, and letting them fly away
to wait and die in lonely places ? "

And another paragraph which was sent me by a
kind friend to our fellow-creatures a few days ago :

44 The celebrated Russian novelist, Turgeniefr*,
tells a most touching incident from his own life,
which awakened in him sentiments that have col-
oured all his writings with a deep and tender feel-
ing.

44 When Turgeniefr" was a boy of ten his father

j6 This Mystical Life of Ours

took him out one day bird-shooting. As they
tramped across the brown stubble, a golden pheas-
ant rose with a low whirr from the ground at his
feet, and, with the joy of a sportsman throbbing
through his veins, he raised his gun and fired, wild
with excitement when the creature fell fluttering at
his side. Life was ebbing fast, but the instinct of
the mother was stronger than death itself, and with
a feeble flutter of her wings the mother bird
reached the nest where her young brood were hud-
dled, unconscious of danger. Then, with such a
look of pleading and reproach that his heart stood
still at the ruin he had wrought, — and never to his
dying day did he forget the feeling of cruelty and
guilt that came to him in that moment, — the little
brown head toppled over, and only the dead body
of the mother shielded her nestlings.

" ' Father, father/ he cried, ' what have I done ? '
as he turned his horror-stricken face to his father.
But not to his father's eye had this little tragedy
been enacted, and he said : ' Well done, my son ;
that was well done for your first shot. You will
soon be a fine sportsman.'

" ' Never, father ; never again shall I destroy any
living creature. If that is sport I will have none
of it. Life is more beautiful to me than death, and
since I cannot give life, I will not take it.' "

And so, instead of putting into the hands of the
child a gun or any other weapon that may be in-
strumental in crippling, torturing, or taking the

Heart Training through the Animal World J*]

life of even a single animal, I would give him the
field-glass and the camera, and send him out to be
a friend to the animals, to observe and study their
characteristics, their habits, to learn from them
those wonderful lessons that can be learned, and
thus have his whole nature expand in admiration
and love and care for them, and become thereby
the truly manly and princely type of man, rather
than the careless, callous, brutal type.

Every Living Creature.

XXIV.

THE SECRET AND THE POWER OF
LOVE.

When we fully realize the great fact of the one-
ness of all life, — that all are partakers from this
one Infinite Source, and so that the same life is the
life in each individual, then prejudices go and
hatreds cease. Love grows and reigns supreme.
Then, wherever we go, whenever we come in con-
tact with the fellowman, we are able to recognize
the God within. We thus look only for the good,
and we find it. It always pays.

There is a deep scientific fact underlying the
great truth, " He that takes the sword shall perish
by the sword." The moment we come into a re-
alization of the subtle power of the thought forces,
we can quickly see that the moment we entertain
any thoughts of hatred toward another, he gets the
effects of these diabolical forces that go out from
us, and has the same thoughts of hatred aroused
in him, which in turn return to the sender. Then
when we understand the effects of the passion,
hatred or anger, even upon the physical body, we
can see how detrimental, how expensive this is.
The same is true in regard to all kindred thoughts
or passions, envy, criticism, jealousy, scorn. In the

The Secret and the Power of Love 79

ultimate we shall find that in entertaining feelings
of this nature toward another, we always suffer
far more than the one toward whom we entertain
them.

And then when we fully realize the fact that sel-
fishness is at the root of all error, sin, and crime,
and that ignorance is the basis of all selfishness,
with what charity we come to look upon the acts
of all. It is the ignorant man who seeks his own
ends at the expense of the greater whole. It is
the ignorant man, therefore, who is the selfish man.
The truly wise man is never selfish. He is a seer,
and recognizes the fact that he, a single member
of the one great body, is benefited in just the de-
gree that the entire body is benefited, and so he
seeks nothing for himself that he would not equally
seek for all mankind.

If selfishness is at the bottom of all error, sin,
and crime, and ignorance is the basis of all selfish-
ness, then when we see a manifestation of either of
these qualities, if we are true to the highest within
us, we will look for and will seek to call forth the
good in each individual with whom we come in con-
tact. When God speaks to God, then God re-
sponds, and shows forth as God. But when devil
speaks to devil, then devil responds, and the devil
is always to pay.

I sometimes hear a person say, " I don't see any
good in him." No? Then you are no seer. Look
deeper and you will find the very God in every

80 This Mystical Life of Ours

human soul. But remember it takes a God to rec-
ognize a God. Christ always spoke to the highest,
the truest, and the best in men. He knew and he
recognized the God in each because he had first
realized it in himself. He ate with publicans and
sinners. Abominable, the Scribes and Pharisees
said. They were so wrapped up in their own con-
ceits, their own self-centredness, hence their own
ignorance, that they had never found the God in
themselves, and so they never dreamed that it was
the real life of even publicans and sinners.

In the degree that we hold a person in the thought
of evil or of error, do we suggest evil and error
to him. In the degree that he is sensitively or-
ganized, or not well individualized, and so, subject
to the suggestions of the thought forces from
others, will he be influenced ; and so in this way we
may be sharers in the very evildoing in which we
hold another in thought. In the same way when
we hold a person in the thought of the right, the
good, and the true, righteousness, goodness, and
truth are suggested to him, and thus we have a
most beneficent influence on his life and conduct.
If our hearts go out in love to all with whom we
come in contact, we inspire love, and the same
ennobling and warming influences of love always
return to us from those in whom we inspire them.
There is a deep scientific principle underlying the
precept — If you would have all the world love you,
you must first love all the world.

The Secret and the Power of Love Sr

In the degree that we love will we be loved.
Thoughts are forces. Each creates of its kind.
Each comes back laden with the effect that cor-
responds to itself and of which it is the cause.

"Then let your secret thoughts be fair —
They have a vital part, and share
In shaping words and moulding fate;
God's system is so intricate."

I know of no better practice than that of a friend
who continually holds himself in an attitude of
mind that he continually sends out his love in the
form of the thought, — " Dear everybody, I love
you." And when we realize the fact that a thought
invariably produces its effect before it returns, or
before it ceases, we can see how he is continually
breathing out a blessing not only upon all with
whom he comes in contact, but upon all the world.
These same thoughts of love, moreover, tokened in
various ways, are continually coming to him from
all quarters.

In Tune with the Infinite.

XXV.

THEN GIVE TO THE WORLD THE BEST

YOU HAVE, AND THE BEST WILL

COME BACK TO YOU.

What a privilege and how enjoyable it would be
to live and walk in a world where we meet only
Gods. In such a world you can live. In such a
world I can live. For in the degree that we come
into this higher realization do we see only the God
in each human soul; and when we are thus able
to see him in every one we meet, we then live in
such a world.

And when we thus recognize the God in every
one, we by this recognition help to call it forth
ever more and more. What a privilege, — this priv-
ilege of yours, this privilege of mine ! That hypo-
critical judging of another is something then with
which we can have nothing to do ; for we have the
power of looking beyond the evolving, changing,
error-making self, and seeing the real, the change-
less, the eternal self which by and by will show
forth in the full beauty of holiness. We are then
large enough also to realize the fact that when we
condemn another, by that very act we condemn
ourselves.

This realization so fills us with love that we con-
tinually overflow it, and all with whom we come

Give to the World the Best You Have 83

in contact feel its warming and life-giving power.
These in turn send back the same feelings of love
to us, and so we continually attract love from all
quarters. Tell me how much one loves and I will
tell you how much he has seen of God. Tell me
how much he loves and I will tell you how much
he lives with God. Tell me how much he loves
and I will tell you how far into the Kingdom of
Heaven, — the kingdom of harmony, he has entered,
for " love is the fulfilling of the law."

And in a sense love is everything. It is the key
to life, and its influences are those that move the
world. Live only in the thought of love for all
and you will draw love to you from all. Live in
the thought of malice or hatred, and malice and
hatred will come back to you.

"For evil poisons; malice shafts
Like boomerangs return,
Inflicting wounds that will not heal
While rage and anger burn."

Every thought you entertain is a force that goes
out, and every thought comes back laden with its
kind. This is an immutable law. Every thought
you entertain has moreover a direct effect upon
your body. Love and its kindred emotions are the
normal and the natural, those in accordance with
the eternal order of the universe, for " God is love."
These have a life-giving, health-engendering in-
fluence upon your body, besides beautifying your
countenance, enriching your voice, and making you

84 This Mystical Life of Ours

ever more attractive in every way. And as it is
true that in the degree that you hold thoughts of
love for all, you call the same from them in return,
and as these have a direct effect upon your mind,
and through your mind upon your body, it is as so
much life force added to your own from without.
You are then continually building this into both
your mental and your physical life, and so your
life is enriched by its influence.

Hatred and all its kindred emotions are the un-
natural, the abnormal, the perversions, and so, out
of harmony with the eternal order of the universe.
For if love is the fulfilling of the law, then these,
its opposites, are direct violations of law, and there
can never be a violation of law without its attend-
ant pain and suffering in one form or another.
There is no escape from this. And what is the re-
sult of this particular form of violation? When
you allow thoughts of anger, hatred, malice, jeal-
ousy, envy, criticism, or scorn to exercise sway,
they have a corroding and poisoning effect upon
the organism ; they pull it down, and if allowed to
continue will eventually tear it to pieces by exter-
nalizing themselves in the particular forms of dis-
ease they give rise to. And then in addition to the
destructive influences from your own mind you are
continually calling the same influences from other
minds, and these come as destructive forces aug-
menting your own, thus aiding in the tearing-down
process.

Give to the World the Best You Have 85

And so love inspires love ; hatred breeds hatred.
Love and good will stimulate and build up the
body ; hatred and malice corrode and tear it down.
Love is a savor of life unto life ; hatred is a savor
of death unto death.

"There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,
There are souls that are pure and true;
Then give to the world the best you have,
And the best will come back to you.

"Give love, and love to your heart will flow,
A strength in your utmost need;
Have faith, and a score of hearts will show
Their faith in your word and deed."

In Tune with the Infinite.

XXVI.

HATRED NEVER CEASES BY HATRED,,
BUT BY LOVE.

Love is positive, and stronger than hatred.
Hatred can always be conquered by love.

On the other hand, if you meet hatred with hatred,
you simply intensify it. You add fuel to the flame
already kindled, upon which it will feed and grow,
and so you increase and intensify the evil condi-
tions. Nothing is to be gained by it, everything is
to be lost. By sending love for hatred you will be
able to so neutralize it that it will not only have
no effect upon you, but will not be able even to
reach you. But more than this, you will by this
course sooner or later be able literally to transmute
the enemy into the friend. Meet hatred with hatred
and you degrade yourself. Meet hatred with love
and you elevate not only yourself but also the one
who bears you hatred.

The Persian sage has said, " Always meet petu-
lance with gentleness, and perverseness with kind-
ness. A gentle hand can lead even an elephant by
a hair. Reply to thine enemy with gentleness.
Opposition to peace is sin." The Buddhist says,
" If a man foolishly does me wrong I will return
him the protection of my ungrudging love. The
more evil comes from him, the more good shall go

Hatred Never Ceases by Hatred 87

from me." "The wise man avenges injuries by
benefits," says the Chinese. " Return good for evil,
overcome anger by love; hatred never ceases by
hatred, but by love," says the Hindu.

The truly wise man or woman will recognize no
one as an enemy. Occasionally we hear the ex-
pression, " Never mind ; I'll get even with him."
Will you? And how will you do it? You can do
it in one of two ways. You can, as you have in
mind, deal with him as he deals, or apparently
deals, with you, — pay him, as we say, in his own
coin. If you do this you will get even with him
by sinking yourself to his level, and both of you
will suffer by it. Or, you can show yourself the
larger, you can send him love for hatred, kindness
for ill-treatment, and so get even with him by rais-
ing him to the higher level. But remember that you
can never help another without by that very act
helping yourself; and if forgetful of self, then in
most all cases the value to vou is greater than the
service you render another. If you are ready to
treat him as he treats you, then you show clearly
that there is in you that which draws the hatred
and ill-treatment to you; you deserve what you
are getting and should not complain, nor would
you complain if you were wise. By following the
other course you most effectually accomplish your
purpose, — you gain a victory for yourself, and at
the same time you do a great service for him, of
which it is evident he stands greatly in need.

88 This Mystical Life of Ours

Thus - may become his saviour. He in turn
may become the saviour of other error-making, and
consequently care-encumbered men and women.
Many times the struggles are greater than we can
ever know. We need more gentleness and sym-
pathy and compassion in our common human life.
Then we will neither blame nor condemn. Instead
of blaming or condemning we will sympathize, and
all the more we will

1 ' Comfort one another,
For the way is often dreary,
And the feet are often weary,

And the heart is very sad.
There is a heavy burden bearing,
When it seems that none are caring,

And we half forget that ever we were glad.

"Comfort one another
With the hand-clasp close and tender,
With the sweetness love can render,

And the looks of friendly eyes.
Do not wait with grace unspoken,
While life's daily bread is broken —

Gentle speech is oft like manna from the skies."

In Tune with the Infinite.

XXVII.

THOUGHT AND ITS INTELLIGENT
DIRECTION.

Of all known forms of energy, thought is the
most subtle, the most irresistible force. It has al-
ways been operating ; but, so far as the great masses
of the people are concerned, it has been operating
blindly, or, rather, they have been blind to its
mighty power, except in the cases of a few here
and there. And these, as a consequence, have been
our prophets, our seers, our sages, our saviors, our
men of great and mighty power. We are just be-
ginning to grasp the tremendous truth that there
is a science of thought, and that the laws govern-
ing it can be known and scientifically applied.

Thought needs direction to be effective, and upon
this effective results depend as much as upon the
force itself. This brings us to the will. Will is
not, as is so often thought, a force in itself; will
is the directing power. Thought is the force.
Will gives direction. Thought scattered gives the
weak, the uncertain, the vacillating, the aspiring,
but the never-doing, the I-would-like-to, but the
get-no-where, the attain-to-nothing man or woman.
Thought steadily directed by the will gives the

go This Mystical Life of Ours

strong, the firm, the never-yielding, the never-
know-defeat man or woman, the man or woman
who uses the very difficulties and hindrances that
would dishearten the ordinary person, as stones
with which he paves a way over which he triumph-
antly walks, who, by the very force he carries
with him, so neutralizes and transmutes the very
obstacles that would bar his way that they fall be-
fore him, and in turn aid him on his way ; the man
or woman who, like the eagle, uses the very con-
trary wind that would thwart his flight, that would
turn him and carry him in the opposite direction,
as the very agency upon which he mounts and
mounts and mounts, until actually lost to the hu-
man eye, and which, in addition to thus aiding him,
brings to him an ever fuller realization of his own
powers, or in other words, an ever greater power.
It is this that gives the man or the woman who
in storm or in sunny weather, rides over every
obstacle, throws before him every barrier, and, as
Browning has said, finally " arrives." Take, for
example, the successful business man, — for it is
all one, the law is the same in all cases, — the man
who started with nothing except his own interior
equipments. He has made up his mind to one
thing, — success. This is his ideal. He thinks suc-
cess, he sees success. He refuses to see anything
else. He expects success : he thus attracts it to
him, his thought-forces continually attract to him
every agency that makes for success. He has set

Thought and Its Intelligent Direction 91

up the current, so that every wind that blows brings
him success. He doesn't expect failure, and so he
doesn't invite it. He has no time, no energies, to
waste in fears or forebodings. He is dauntless,
untiring, in his efforts. Let disaster come to-day,
and to-morrow — ay, even yet to-day — he is getting
his bearings, he is setting forces anew into opera-
tion; and these very forces are of more value to
him than the half million dollars of his neighbor
who has suffered from the same disaster. We
speak of a man's failing in business, little thinking
that the real failure came long before, and that the
final crash is but the culmination, the outward vis-
ible manifestation, of the real failure that occurred
within possibly long ago. A man carries his suc-
cess or his failure with him: it is not dependent
upon outside conditions.

What All the World's A-Seeking.

XXVIII.
WILI^-THE HUMAN AND THE DIVINE.

Will is the steady directing power: it is concen-
tration. It is the pilot which, after the vessel is
started by the mighty force within, puts it on its
right course and keeps it true to that course.
• • . • •

Will is the sun-glass which so concentrates and
so focuses the sun's rays that they quickly burn
a hole through the paper that is held before it.
The same rays, not thus concentrated, not thus
focused, would fall upon the paper for days with-
out any effect whatever. Will is the means for the
directing, the concentrating, the focusing, of the
thought-forces. Thought under wise direction, —
this it is that does the work, that brings results,
that makes the successful career. One object in
mind which we never lose sight of ; an ideal stead-
ily held before the mind, never lost sight of, never
lowered, never swerved from, — this, with persist-
ence, determines all. Nothing can resist the power
of thought, when thus directed by will.

May not this power, then, be used for base as
well as for good purposes, for selfish as well as
for unselfish ends? The same with this modifica-
tion,— the more highly thought is spiritualized,

Will — the Human and the Divine 93

the more subtle and powerful it becomes ; and the
more highly spiritualized the life, the farther is it
removed from base, ignoble, selfish ends. But,
even if it can be thus used, let him who would so
use it be careful, let him never forget that that
mighty, searching, omnipotent law of the right,
of truth, of justice, that runs through all the uni-
verse and that can never be annulled or even for
a moment set aside, will drive him to the wall, will
crush him with a terrific force if he so use it.

Let him never forget that whatever he may get
for self at the expense of some one else, through
deception, through misrepresentation, through the
exercise of the lower functions and powers, will by
a law equally subtle, equally powerful, be turned
into ashes in his very hands. The honey he thinks
he has secured will be turned into bitterness as he
attempts to eat it; the beautiful fruit he thinks
is his will be as wormwood as he tries to enjoy it;
the rose he has plucked will vanish, and he will
find himself clutching a handful of thorns, which
will penetrate to the very quick and which will flow
the very life-blood from his hands. For through
the violation of a higher, an immutable law, though
he may get this or that, the power of true enjoy-
ment will be taken away, and what he gets will
become as a thorn in his side : either this or it will
sooner or later escape from his hands. God's tri-
umphal car moves in a direction and at a rate that
is certain and absolute, and he who would oppose

94 This Mystical Life of Ours

it or go contrary to it must fall and be crushed
beneath its wheels; and for him this crushing is
necessary, in order that it may bring him the more
quickly to a knowledge of the higher laws, to a
realization of the higher self.

This brings to our notice two orders of will,
which we may term, for convenience' sake, the hu-
man and the divine. The human will is the one
just noticed, the sense will, the will of the lower
self, that which seeks its own ends regardless of
its connection with the greater whole. The divine
will is the will of the higher self, the God-self, that
never makes an error, that never leads into diffi-
culties.

It is thus that the Infinite Power works through
and for us — true inspiration — while our part is
simply to see that our connection with this power
is consciously and perfectly kept.

What All the World's A-Seeking.

XXIX.
THE SECRET OF THE HIGHEST POWER.

The secret of the highest power is simply the
uniting of the outer agencies of expression with the
Power that works from within. Are you a painter ?
Then in the degree that you open yourself to the
power of the forces within will you become great
instead of mediocre. You can never put into per-
manent form inspirations higher than those that
come through your own soul. In order for the
higher inspirations to come through it, you must
open your soul, you must open it fully to the Su-
preme Source of all inspiration. Are you an
orator ? In the degree that you come into harmony
and work in conjunction with the higher powers
that will speak through you will you have the real
power of moulding and of moving men. If you
use merely your physical agents, you will be simply
a demagogue. If you open yourself so that the
voice of God can speak through and use your
physical agents, you will become a great and true
orator, great and true in just the degree that you
so open yourself.

Are you a singer? Then open yourself and let
the God within pour forth in the spirit of song.
You will find it a thousand times easier than all

g6 This Mystical Life of Ours

your long and studied practice without this, and
other things being equal, there will come to you a
power of song so enchanting and so enrapturing
that its influence upon all who hear will be irre-
sistible.

When my cabin or tent has been pitched during
the summer on the edge or in the midst of a forest,
I have sometimes lain awake on my cot in the
early morning, just as the day was beginning to
break. Silence at first. Then an intermittent
chirp here and there. And as the unfolding tints
of the dawn became faintly perceptible, these grew
more and more frequent, until by and by the whole
forest seemed to burst forth in one grand chorus
of song. Wonderful! wonderful! It seemed as if
the very trees, as if every grass-blade, as if the
bushes, the very sky above, and the earth beneath,
had part in this wonderful symphony. Then, as I
have listened as it went on and on, I have thought,
What a study in the matter of song! If we could
but learn from the birds. If we could but open
ourselves to the same powers and allow them to
pour forth in us, what singers, what movers of
men we might have ! Nay, what singers and what
movers of men we would have!

When we open ourselves to the highest inspira-
tions they never fail us. When we fail to do this
we fail in attaining the highest results, whatever
the undertaking.

The Secret of the Highest Power 97

Are you a writer? Then remember that the one
great precept underlying all successful literary
work is, Look into thine own heart and write.
Be true. Be fearless. Be loyal to the promptings
of your own soul. Remember that an author can
never write more than he himself is. If he would
write more, then he must be more. He is simply
his own amanuensis. He in a sense writes himself
into his book. He can put no more into it than
he himself is.

If he is one of a great personality, strong in pur-
pose, deep in feeling, open always to the highest
inspirations, a certain indefinable something gets
into his pages that makes them breathe forth a
vital, living power, a power so great that each
reader gets the same inspirations as those that
spoke through the author. That that's written be-
tween the lines is many times more than that that's
written in the lines. It is the spirit of the author
that engenders this power.

The one, on the other hand, who fears to de-
part from beaten paths, who allows himself to be
bound by arbitrary rules, limits his own creative
powers in just the degree that he allows himself
so to be bound. " My book," says one of the 'great-
est of modern authors, " shall smell of the pines
and resound with the hum of insects. The swallow
over my window shall interweave that thread or
straw he carries in his bill into my web also." Far

98 This Mystical Life of Ours

better, gentle sage, to have it smell of the pines
and resound with the hum of insects than to have
it sound of the rules that a smaller type of man
gets by studying the works of a few great, fear-
less writers like yourself, and formulating from
what he thus gains a handbook of rhetoric. " Of
no use are the men who study to do exactly as was
done before, who can never understand that to-day
is a new day"

In Tune with the Infinite.

XXX.

WISDOM: OR INTERIOR ILLUMINATION.

In order for the highest wisdom and insight we
must have absolute confidence in the Divine guid-
ing us, but not through the channel of some one
else. And why should we go to another for knowl-
edge and wisdom? With God is no respect of
persons. Why should we seek these things second
hand ? Why should we thus stultify our own innate
powers? Why should we not go direct to the In-
finite Source itself ? " If any man lack wisdom let
him ask of God." " Before they call I will answer,
and while they are yet speaking, I will hear."

When we thus go directly to the Infinite Source
itself we are no longer slaves to personalities, in-
stitutions, or books. We should always keep our-
selves open to suggestions of truth from these agen-
cies. We should always regard them as agencies,
however, and never as sources. We should never
recognize them as masters, but simply as teachers.
With Browning, we must recognize the great fact
that—

"Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward things, whate'er you may believe.
There is an inmost centre in us all,
Where truth abides in fullness."

ioo This Mystical Life of Ours

There is no more important injunction in all the
world, nor one with a deeper interior meaning, than
" To thine own self be true." In other words, be
true to your own soul, for it is through your own
soul that the voice of God speaks to you. This is
the interior guide. This is the light that lighteth
every man that cometh into the world. This is
conscience. This is intuition. This is the voice of
the higher self, the voice of the soul, the voice of
God. " Thou shalt hear a voice behind thee, say-
ing : This is the way, walk ye in it."

When Elijah was on the mountain it was after
the various physical commotions and manifesta-
tions that he heard the " still, small voice," the
voice of his own soul, through which the Infinite
God was speaking. If we will but follow this voice
of intuition, it will speak ever more clearly and more
plainly, until by and by it will be absolute and un-
erring in its guidance. The great trouble with us
is that we do not listen to and do not follow this
voice within our own souls, and so we become as
a house divided against itself. We are pulled this
way and that, and we are never certain of anything.
I have a friend who listens so carefully to this
inner voice, who, in other words, always acts so
quickly and so fully in accordance with his intu-
itions, and whose life as a consequence is so abso-
lutely guided by them, that he always does the
right thing at the right time and in the right way.
He always knows when to act and how to act, and

Wisdom: Or Interior Illumination ioi

he is never in the condition of a house divided
against itself.

But some one says, " May it not be dangerous for
us to act always upon our intuitions ? Suppose we
should have an intuition to do harm to some one ? "
We need not be afraid of this, however, for the
voice of the soul, this voice of God speaking
through the soul, will never direct one to do harm
to another, nor to do anything that is not in ac-
cordance with the highest standards of right, and
truth, and justice. And if you at any time have a
prompting of this kind, know that it is not the voice
of intuition ; it is some characteristic of your lower
self that is prompting you.

Reason is not to be set aside, but it is to be con-
tinually illumined by this higher spiritual percep-
tion, and in the degree that it is thus illumined will
it become ah agent of light and power. When one
becomes thoroughly individualized he enters into
the realm of all knowledge and wisdom; and to
be individualized is to recognize no power outside
of the Infinite Power that is back of all. When
one recognizes this great fact and opens himself
to this Spirit of Infinite Wisdom, he then enters
upon the road to the true education, and mysteries
that before were closed now reveal themselves to
him. This must indeed be the foundation of all
true education, this evolving from within, this
evolving of what has been involved by the In-
finite Power.

102 This Mystical Life of Ours

There are no new stars, there are no new laws
or forces, but we can so open ourselves to this
Spirit of Infinite Wisdom that we can discover
and recognize those that have not been known be-
fore; and in this way they become new to us.

" This is true wisdom. Wisdom is the knowledge
of God." Wisdom comes by intuition. It far trans-
cends knowledge. Great knowledge, knowledge of
many things, may be had by virtue simply of a very
retentive memory. It comes by tuition. But wis-
dom far transcends knowledge, in that knowledge
is a mere incident of this deeper wisdom.

In Tune zvith the Infinite.

XXXI.

LET THERE BE MANY WINDOWS IN
YOUR SOUL.

He who would enter into the realm of wisdom
must first divest himself of all intellectual pride.
He must become as a little child. Prejudices, pre-
conceived opinions, and beliefs always stand in the
way of true wisdom. Conceited opinions are always
suicidal in their influences. They bar the door to
the entrance of truth.

All about us we see men in the religious world,
in the world of science, in the political, in the so-
cial world, who through intellectual pride are so
wrapped in their own conceits and prejudices that
larger and later revelations of truth can find no en-
trance to them ; and instead of growing and expand-
ing, they are becoming dwarfed and stunted, and
still more incapable of receiving truth. Instead of
actively aiding in the progress of the world, they
&re as so many dead sticks in the way that would
retard the wheels of progress. This, however, they
can never do. Such always in time get bruised,
broken, and left behind, while God's triumphal car
of truth moves steadily onward.

When the steam engine was still being experi-
mented with, and before it was perfected sufficiently

104 This Mystical Life of Ours

to come into practical use, a well-known English-
man— well known then in scientific circles — wrote
an extended pamphlet proving that it would be im-
possible for it ever to be used in ocean navigation,
that is, in a trip involving the crossing of the ocean,
because it would be utterly impossible for any ves-
sel to carry with it sufficient coal for the use of its
furnace. And the interesting feature of the whole
matter was that the very first steam vessel that made
the trip from England to America, had among its
cargo a part of the first edition of this carefully pre-
pared pamphlet. There was only the one edition.
Many editions might be sold now.

This seems indeed an amusing fact ; but far more
amusing is the man who voluntarily closes himself
to truth because, forsooth, it does not come through
conventional, or orthodox, or heretofore accepted
channels; or because it may not be in full accord
with, or possibly may be opposed to, established
Usages or beliefs. On the contrary —

"Let there be many windows in your soul,
That all the glory of the universe
May beautify it. Not the narrow pane
Of one poor creed can catch the radiant rays
That shine from countless sources. Tear away
The blinds of superstition : let the light
Pour through fair windows, broad as truth itself
And high as heaven. . . . Tune your ear
To all the wordless music of the stars
And to the voice of nature, and your heart
Shall turn to truth and goodness as the plant
Turns to the sun. A thousand unseen hands

Let there be Windoivs in Your Soul 105

Reach down to help you to their peace-crowned heights,

And all the forces of the firmament

Shall fortify your strength. Be not afraid

To thrust aside half-truths and grasp the whole."

There is a great law in connection with the com-
ing of truth. It is this: Whenever a man or a
woman shuts himself or herself to the entrance of
truth on account of intellectual pride, preconceived
opinions, prejudices, or for whatever reason, there
is a great law which says that truth in its fullness
will come to that one from no source. And on the
other hand, when a man or a woman opens himself
or herself fully to the entrance of truth from what-
ever source it may come, there is an equally great
law which says that truth will flow in to him or to
her from all sources, from all quarters. Such be-
comes the free man, the free woman, for it is the
truth that makes us free. The other remains in
bondage, for truth has had no invitation and will
not enter where it is not fully and freely welcomed.

And where truth is denied entrance the rich bless-
ings it carries with it cannot take up their abode.
On the contrary, when this is the case, it sends an
envoy carrying with it atrophy, disease, death, physi-
cally and spiritually as well as intellectually. And
the man who would rob another of his free and un-
fettered search for truth, who would stand as the
interpreter of truth for another, with the intent of
remaining in this position, rather than endeavoring
to lead him to the place where he can be his own

106 This Mystical Life of Ours

interpreter, is more to be shunned than a thief and
a robber. The injury he works is far greater, for
he is doing direct and positive injury to the very
life of the one he thus holds.

Who has ever appointed any man, whoever he
may be, as the keeper, the custodian, the dispenser
of God's illimitable truth ? Many indeed are moved
and so are called to be teachers of truth ; but the
true teacher will never stand as the interpreter of
truth for another. The true teacher is the one
whose endeavor is to bring the one he teaches to
a true knowledge of himself and hence of his own
interior powers, that he may become his own in-
terpreter. All others are, generally speaking,
those animated by purely personal motives, self-ag-
grandizement, or personal gain. Moreover, he who
would claim to have all truth and the only truth,
is a bigot, a fool, or a knave.

In Tune with the Infinite.

XXXII.

AS TO THE QUALITY OF OUR EDUCA-
TION.

Every child in school until a certain age or until a
sufficient equipment to meet the ordinary duties of
life is reached, should be the nation's motto.

It is also eminently fitting that something be said
of the quality of the education it is proposed to
make compulsory attendance upon universal. To
come at once to the point in mind and briefly —
training of the intellect alone is not sufficient; we
shall remain a long way oft* from the ideal until
we make moral, humane, heart-training a far more
important feature of our educational systems than
we have made it thus far. We are advancing in
this respect, but we have great advances yet to
make. Kindness and consideration, sympathy and
fraternity, love of justice — the full and ready will-
ingness to give it as well as to demand it, the clear-
cut comprehension of the majesty and beauty that
escapes into the life of the individual as he under-
stands and appropriates to himself the all-embrac-
ing contents of the golden rule. The training of
the intellect alone at the expense of the " human-
ities " has made or has enlarged the power of many
a criminal, many a usurper of other men's homes

108 This Mystical Life of Ours

and property, many an oppressor, and has thereby
added poison and desolation to his own life as well
as to the lives of those with whom he has come in
contact and who have felt his blighting and wither-
ing influence. It is also chiefly from those without
this training, that that great body of our fellow-crea-
tures which we term the animal world, receive their
most thoughtless and cruel treatment, and perhaps
from among none more than among the rich and
fashionable.

I think there is another feature in our educational
systems that we would do wisely to give more at-
tention to. In a nation of free institutions, more
attention could wisely be given to systematic and
concrete instruction in connection with the insti-
tutions of government, and in connection with this
a training in civic pride that sees to it that our
public offices are filled with men of at least ordinary
honesty and integrity, men who regard public office
as a public trust worthy the service of their high-
est manhood, rather than with those whose eye is
single to the largest amount of loot and graft that
comes within the range of their vision and the reach
of their hand. Such a system would in time spell
the end of Tammany Hall — a Democratic organiza-
tion in New York City, whose chief object is to
make politics a cover to divert the largest possible
sums of money from the people of the City of New
York to line the pockets, and in great abundance,
of those in control of the body of loot. It would

As to the Quality of our Education 109

in time spell the end of the Republican rings and
HalJs whose object and purpose is identically the
same in every city where they have been able to
gain control, as well as the Democratic rings in
cities other than New York. The methods of the
rings of the one are equally black with the methods
of the rings of the other; where the motives are
the same the resultant action is the same.

Our educational methods are developing. In edu-
cational work are some of our noblest, our fore-
most men and women. There is an element of the
practical, the useful, that is now sort of remodelling
our earlier methods. It has always seemed to me
that not only in our public schools but in our col-
leges and universities, it is possible to get as great
a degree of training from branches that are in them-
selves useful, that will be of actual use later on,
as out of those that are used for their training value
only. The element of the useful, not at the expense
of the training, but combined with it, should be,
I think, and is coming to be, the marked feature of
our developing educational methods.

The bread and butter problem will be the prob-
lem of practically all in our common or public
schools to-day. There probably will not be one in
a thousand whose problem it will not be. To make
our educational systems so that they will be of the
greatest practical aid to all as they enter upon life's
activities should, it seems to me, be one of our great-
est aims. That our college courses can be improved

1 10 This Mystical Life of Ours

to at least from twenty to forty per cent along this
same line I am fully persuaded, in addition to the
saving of considerable valuable time for those who,
contemplating professional careers, will afterwards
have to spend a considerable period in years in
professional schools.

When we consider that not more than one-tenth
of one per cent of those in our common schools ever
get as far as the college or university, we can see
how important it is that every child be guaranteed
what the law of the most ordinary justice demands,
that he or she have the benefit at least of what will
enable him or her to enter upon the stage of young
manhood and young womanhood free from the
tremendous handicaps with which so many are en-
tering upon it to-day.

In the Fire of the Heart.

XXXIII.
A NEW ORDER OF PATRIOTISM.

A new order of patriotism is coming into being
and among us. What was at one time confined to
the few brave, independent, advanced men, is now
becoming common among the people. We are find-
ing that the elements of justice and righteousness,
fraternity and godliness, have a very direct relation
to, or rather, that patriotism has a very direct re-
lation to them. War — war and the flag, were at one
time supposed to be the only agents with which
patriotism was linked. To hurrah for the flag and
to be eager to go to the front, when the war bugles
sounded, or were likely to sound, was for a long
period a prevailing idea of patriotism. It may still
be a way in which patriotism may be manifested.

The people are learning the real cause of many
wars, indeed the great majority of them — the bull-
headedness or pig-headedness, the incapacity on the
part of those having to do with affairs ; and again,
the throwing of an entire nation into war by large
and powerful though unscrupulous financial inter-
ests solely for gain. These two agents are responsi-
ble for the great bulk, indeed for nine out of every
ten, of all modern wars, even as they have been
for all time past. Men are beginning to realize that

H2 This Mystical Life of Ours

instead of having anything to do with this type of
war, patriotism lies in refusing absolutely to aid or
abet it and in using one's influence in a similar way
among one's neighbours more blunt and with less
power of discernment. When we reach a point
where the large body of citizens see to it that these
men and their agents — for the large financial in-
terests of the unscrupulous type almost invariably
work through agents many of whom they place or
have the people place in public* positions — when, I
repeat, the larger body of citizens see to it that
these men and their agents are kept out of public
office and relegate them to the subordinate place
where they rightly belong, then we will witness the
full birth of an entirely new and a higher order of
patriotism that is soon to be dominant among us.

The highest patriotism that I know is that which
impels a man to be honest, kind, hence thoughtful
in all his business relations and in his daily life;
that impels him to the primary and to give attention
to those features of our political institutions that
are of even greater consequence than his casting
his vote on election day ; that impels him to think
and to be discriminating in his thought; that en-
ables him to be not afraid to point out and denounce
the pure self-seeker and his demagogic ways, be
he in public life, in the ranks of high standing finan-
ciers, or in the ranks of organized labour, or in
the ranks of the common life.

It is this patriotism in the common life that is

A New Order of Patriotism 113

of the high quality. Men who arc industrious and
honest in their work; who are faithful to whatever
tasks are imposed upon them ; who are as eager to
give justice as to demand it ; who are working in-
dustriously and intelligently in order to take care
of themselves and those dependent upon them, and
thus remain self-supporting members of the com-
munity; who remain brave and sweet in their na-
tures and who abide always in faith in face of the
hard or uncertain times that come at some time or
another and in some form or another into the lives
of everyone of us; who are jealous of their coun-
try's honour, and of the administration of its in-
ternal affairs, for in the life of the nation as in the
life of the individual, all life is from within out,
and as is the inner so always will be the outer.
These, I repeat, are the men and these are the con-
ditions that are giving birth to that new and that
higher order of patriotism that is now coming
among us, and that is to take captive the hearts of
men.

That wars in the past have been, and even at the
present time are too frequent, all thinking men and
women are agreed. That they are in the great ma-
jority of cases entirely inexcusable, and that there
is and should be very little use for military forces
if any, outside of purposes of defence, the highest
and most intelligent portion of our citizenship
thoroughly believes. And so far as effectiveness is
concerned it has been proven time and again, that

114 This Mystical Life of Ours

a citizen soldiery is the finest in the world. Neither
vast bodies of men drawn off from creative and pro-
ductive enterprises and made into a professional
soldier class, nor bodies of hirelings, but men who
are citizens of intelligence and training, and who
stand with the ear ready for the call to arms when
there is just cause for their hearing this call, such
are the intelligent, such are the brave and the dar-
ing, such are the most effective. Men will not fight
effectively for the little price in money they are
paid. They will not fight effectively for the glory
of another, nor will they fight effectively for a mere
tract of land. But where homes are and institu-
tions that they love and revere and care for, then
men will fight with all that triumphant intelligence
and all that indomitable daring that it is possible
to call forth. With a citizen soldiery ready at the
just moment to come from the mine, the mill, the
counting-house, the farm, thousands of thousands
or millions strong, why should there be a vast pro-
fessional soldiery, a' great non-producing class kept
primarily for the glory and to do the bidding of a
ruling class, but supported almost entirely by the
great common people, that is true of the foolhardy
military systems of various European countries
to-day ?

So far then as the soldiery of a nation is con-
cerned, let the interests of all the people be equally
taken care of, let there be institutions founded upon
justice, upon equal opportunities for all and special

A New Order of Patriotism 1 1 5

privileges for no man, let there be homes and senti-
ment encircling these homes, and the keeping up
of a large military system becomes but a fool's
dream. There will come from such a people a citi-
zen soldiery more intelligent, more brave and de-
termined, and therefore more effective, than can
ever come from any professional fighting class, and
at a cost not a hundredth part as great.

Take sentiment from the battle-field and you take
its chief source of heroism away. The people of
homes and of just institutions are a people of senti-
ment. Upon every cartridge-box and upon every
rifle and upon every field piece of such a soldiery
the word " Invincible " could most rightly be
stamped.

In the Fire of the Heart.

XXXIV.

MEN OF EXCEPTIONAL EXECUTIVE AND
FINANCIAL ABILITY.

The great nation is, again, the nation in which
the man of great natural executive or financial abil-
ity finds contentment in a smaller amount of pos-
sessions for himself, and the larger contentment and
satisfaction and joy in using that unusual ability
in the service of, for the benefit of, his city, his
state, the nation. The wonder is that more are not
doing this already. What an influence a few such
men could have, what results they could accomplish,
what real riches they could bring into their lives
through the riches they would bring into the lives
of multitudes — What gratitude would go to them!

As men continue to see the small satisfaction there
is in the possession of great ability of this nature,
and in the possession of great wealth when di-
vorced from an adequate or even from an abundant
connection with the interests and the welfare of
their fellow-men, and as they catch the undying
truth of the great law of life as enunciated by One
who though He had not even where to lay His
head was greater than them all — He that is great-
est among you shall be your servant — then they
in company with all men will be the gainers. Think

Executive and Financial Ability 117

what could be accomplished in the nation along the
lines we have been considering in this little volume
by a company of such men devoted to such ends.
A change is coming and very rapidly. The time has
already arrived when we will no longer look upon
the possession of mere wealth or the ability to get
it as deserving of any special distinction, and es-
pecially when the means adopted in its acquirement
are other than those of absolute honour and recti-
tude.

How significant are the following observations

from the Outlook:

"Those who have fallen most completely under the spell
of fortune-hunting, and have been consumed by the fever
of a pursuit which dries up the very sources of spiritual life,
can no longer be blind to the fact that when great wealth
ceases to be associated with character, honour, genius, or
public respect, it is a very shabby substitute for the thing
men once held it to be . There are hosts of honourable men
of wealth, and there are large fortunes which have been
honourably made; but so much brutal indifference to the
rights of others, so much tyrannical use of power, so much
arbitrary employment of privilege without a touch of
genius, so much cynical indifference to human ties of all
kinds, so much vulgar greed, have come to light, . . . that
the lustre has very largely gone and wealth, as a supreme
prize of life, has immensely lost in attractive power. There
are hosts of young men who are ambitious to be rich, but
who are not willing to accept wealth on such terms; the
price is too great, the bargain too hard."

Men of exceptional executive and financial abil-
ity, raise yourselves to the standing-point of real
greatness and use these abilities to noble purposes

n8 This Mystical Life of Ours

and to undying ends instead of piling a heap of
things together that you'll soon have to leave and
that may do those to whom it will go more harm
than good. The times are changing, mankind is
advancing and ascending to higher standing places,
and it will be but a short time when your position
if maintained as at present will be a very ordinary
one or even a very low one in the public esteem —
and so will be your memories.

The Bishop of Exeter voices a well-nigh universal
human cry at present when he says:

Give us men!
Strong and stalwart ones:
Men whom highest hope inspires,
Men whom purest honour fires,
Men who trample Self beneath them,
Men who make their country wreathe them
As her noble sons,
Worthy of their sires,
Men who never shame their mothers,
Men who never fail their brothers,
True, however false are others:
Give us Men — I say again,
Give us Men!

In the Fire of the Heart.

XXXV.

AN EXAMPLE— A VERY YOUNG OLD
LADY.

A close observer, a careful student of the power
of the thought forces, will soon be able to read in
the voice, in the movements, in the features, the
effects registered by the prevailing mental states
and conditions. Or, if he is told the prevailing men-
tal states and conditions, he can describe the voice,
the movements, the features, as well as describe, in
a general way, the peculiar physical ailments their
possessor is heir to.

There comes to mind at this moment a friend, a
lady well on to eighty years of age. An old lady,
some, most people in fact, would call her, especially
those who measure age by the number of the sea-
sons that have come and gone since one's birth.
But to call our friend old, would be to call black
white. She is no older than a girl of twenty-five,
and indeed younger, I am glad to say, or I am
sorry to say, depending upon the point of view,
than many a girl of this age. Seeking for the good
in all people and in all things, she has found the
good everywhere. The brightness of disposition
and of voice that is hers to-day, that attracts all
people to her and that makes her so beautifully

120 This Mystical Life of Ours

attractive to all people, has characterized her all
through life. It has in turn carried brightness and
hope and courage and strength to hundreds and
thousands of people through all these years, and
will continue to do so, apparently, for many years
yet to come.

No fears, no worryings, no hatreds, no jealousies,
no sorrowings, no grievings, no sordid graspings
after inordinate gain, have found entrance into her
realm of thought. As a consequence her mind, free
from these abnormal states and conditions, has not
externalized in her body the various physical ail-
ments that the great majority of people are lugging
about with them, thinking in their ignorance, that
they are natural, and that it is all in accordance
with the " eternal order of things " that they should
have them. Her life has been one of varied experi-
ences, so that all these things would have found
ready entrance into the realm of her mind and so
into her life were she ignorant enough to allow
them entrance. On the contrary she has been wise
enough to recognize the fact that in one kingdom
at least she is ruler, — the kingdom of her mind, and
that it is hers to dictate as to what shall and what
shall not enter there. She knows, moreover, that in
determining this she is determining all the condi-
tions of her life. It is indeed a pleasure as well as
an inspiration to see her as she goes here and there,
to see her sunny disposition, her youthful step, to
hear her joyous laughter. Indeed and in truth,

An Example— A Very Young Old Lady 121

Shakespeare knew whereof he spoke when he said,
— " It is the mind that makes the body rich."

With great pleasure I watched her but recently
as she was walking along the street, stopping to have
a word and so a part in the lives of a group of
children at play by the wayside, hastening her step
a little to have a word with a washerwoman toting
her bundle of clothes, stopping for a word with a
laboring man returning with dinner pail in hand
from his work, returning the recognition from the
lady in her carriage, and so imparting some of her
own rich life to all with whom she came in contact.

And as good fortune would have it, while still
watching her, an old lady passed her, — really old,
this one, though at least ten or fifteen years younger,
so far as the count by the seasons is concerned.
Nevertheless she was bent in form and apparently
stiff in joint and muscle. Silent in mood, she wore
a countenance of long-faced sadness, which was in-
tensified surely several fold by a black, sombre head-
gear with an immense heavy veil still more sombre
looking if possible. Her entire dress was of this
description. By this relic-of-barbarism garb, com-
bined with her own mood and expression, she con-
tinually proclaimed to the world two things, — her
own personal sorrows and woes, which by this very
method she kept continually fresh in her mind, and
also her lack of faith in the eternal goodness of
things, her lack of faith in the love and eternal
goodness of the Infinite Father.

122 This Mystical Life of Ours

Wrapped only in the thoughts of her own ail-
ments, and sorrows, and woes, she received and she
gave nothing of joy, nothing of hope, nothing of
courage, nothing of value to those whom she passed
or with whom she came in contact. But on the
contrary she suggested to all and helped to intensify
in many, those mental states all too prevalent in
our common human life. And as she passed our
friend one could notice a slight turn of the head
which, coupled with the expression in her face,
seemed to indicate this as her thought, — Your dress
and your conduct are not wholly in keeping with
a lady of your years. Thank God, then, thank God
they are not. And may He in His great goodness
and love send us an innumerable company of the
same rare type ; and may they live a thousand years
to bless mankind, to impart the life-giving influ-
ences of their own royal lives to the numerous ones
all about us who stand so much in need of them.
In Tune with the Infinite.

XXXVI.

HOW MIND BUILDS BODY.

Would you remain always young, and would
you carry all the joyousness and buoyancy of youth
into your maturer years ? Then have care concern-
ing but one thing, — how you live in your thought
world. This will determine all. It was the inspired
one, Gautama, the Buddha, who said, — " The mind
is everything; what you think you become." And
the same thing had Ruskin in mind when he said, —
" Make yourself nests of pleasant thoughts. None
of us as yet know, for none of us have been taught
in early youth, what fairy palaces we may build of
beautiful thought, — proof against all adversity"
And would you have in your body all the elasticity,
all the strength, all the beauty of your younger
years? Then live these in your mind, making no
room for unclean thought, and you will externalize
them in your body. In the degree that you keep
young in thought will you remain young in body.
And you will find that your body will in turn aid
your mind, for body helps mind the same as mind
builds body.

You are continually building, and so externaliz-
ing in your body conditions most akin to the
thoughts and emotions you entertain. And not only

124 This Mystical Life of Ours

are you so building from within, but you are also
continually drawing from without, forces of a kin-
dred nature. Your particular kind of thought con-
nects you with a similar order of thought from with-
out. If it is bright, hopeful, cheerful, you connect
yourself with a current of thought of this nature.
If it is sad, fearing, despondent, then this is the
order of thought you connect yourself with.

If the latter is the order of your thought, then
perhaps unconsciously and by degrees you have been
connecting yourself with it. You need to go back
and pick up again a part of your child nature, with
its careless and cheerful type of thought.

Full, rich, and abounding health is the normal
and the natural condition of life. Anything else
is an abnormal condition, and abnormal conditions
as a rule come through perversions. Go3 never cre-
ated sickness, suffering, and disease ; they are man's
own creations. They come through his violating
the laws under which he lives. So used are we to
seeing them that we come gradually, if not to think
of them as natural, then to look upon them as a
matter of course.

The time will come when the work of the phy-
sician will not be to treat and attempt to heal the
body, but to heal the mind, which in turn will heal
the body. In other words, the true physician will
be a teacher ; his work will be to keep people well,
instead of attempting to make them well after sick-
ness and disease comes on; and still beyond this

How Mind Builds Body 125

there will come a time when each will be his own
physician. In the degree that we live in harmony
with the higher laws of our being, and so, in the
degree that we become better acquainted with the
powers of the mind and spirit, will we give less
attention to the body, — no less care, but less atten-
tion.

The bodies of thousands to-day would be much
better cared for if their owners gave them less
thought and attention. As a rule, those who think
least of their bodies enjoy the best health. Many
are kept in continual ill health by the abnormal
thought and attention they give them.

Give the body the nourishment, the exercise, the
fresh air, the sunlight it requires, keep it clean, and
then think of it as little as possible. In your
thoughts and in your conversation never dwell upon
the negative side. Don't talk of sickness and dis-
ease. By talking of these you do yourself harm
and you do harm to those who listen to you. Talk
of those things that will make people the better for
listening to you. Thus you will infect them with
health and strength and not with weakness and
disease.

" Never affirm or repeat about your health what
you do not wish to be true. Do not dwell upon your
ailments, nor study your symptoms. Never allow
yourself to be convinced that you are not complete
master of yourself. Stoutly affirm your superiority
over bodily ills, and do not acknowledge yourself

126 This Mystical Life of Ours

the slave of any inferior power. ... I would teach
children early to build a strong barrier between
themselves and disease, by healthy habits of thought,
high thinking, and purity of life. I would teach
them to expel all thoughts of death, all images of
disease, all discordant emotions, like hatred, malice,
revenge, envy, and sensuality, as they would ban-
ish a temptation to do evil. I would teach them that
bad food, bad drink, or bad air makes bad blood;
that bad blood makes bad tissue, and bad flesh bad
morals. I would teach them that healthy thoughts
are as essential to healthy bodies as pure thoughts
to a clean life. I would teach them to cultivate a
strong will power, and to brace themselves against
life's enemies in every possible way. I would teach
the sick to have hope, confidence, cheer. Our
thoughts and imaginations are the only real limits
to our possibilities. No man's success or health
will ever reach beyond his own confidence; as a
rule, we erect our own barriers."

In Tune with the Infinite.

XXXVII.
SOUL RADIANCE.

All the frictions, all the uncertainties, all the ills,
the sufferings, the fears, the forebodings, the per-
plexities of life come to us because we are out of
harmony with the divine order of things. They
will continue to come as long as we so live. Row-
ing against the tide is hard and uncertain. To go
with the tide and thus to take advantage of the
working of a great natural force is safe and easy.
To come into the conscious, vital realization of our
oneness with the Infinite Life and Power is to come
into the current of this divine sequence. Coming
thus into harmony with the Infinite, brings us in
turn into harmony with all about us, into harmony
with the life of the heavens, into harmony with all
the universe. And above all, it brings us into har-
mony with ourselves, so that body, soul, and mind
become perfectly harmonized, and when this is so,
life becomes full and complete.

The sense life then no longer masters and en-
slaves us. The physical is subordinated to and
ruled by the mental ; this in turn is subordinated
to and continually illumined by the spiritual. Life
is then no longer the poor, onesided thing it is in so
many cases; but the three-fold, the all-round life

128 This Mystical Life of Ours

with all its beauties and ever increasing joys and
powers is entered upon. Thus it is that we are
brought to realize that the middle path is the great
solution of life ; neither asceticism on the one hand
nor license and perverted use on the other. Every-
thing is for use, but all must be wisely used in order
to be fully enjoyed.

As we live in these higher realizations the senses
are not ignored but are ever more fully perfected.
As the body becomes less gross and heavy, finer in
its texture and form, all the senses become finer,
so that powers we do not now realize as belonging
to us gradually develop. Thus we come, in a per-
fectly natural and normal way, into the super-con-
scious realms whereby we make it possible for the
higher laws and truths to be revealed to us. As
we enter into these realms we are then not among
those who give their time to speculating as to
whether this one or that one had the insight and the
powers attributed to him, but we are able to know
for ourselves. Neither are we among those who at-
tempt to lead the people upon the hearsay of some
one else, but we know whereof we speak, and only
thus can we speak with authority. There are many
things that we cannot know until by living the life
we bring ourselves into that state where it is pos-
sible for them to be revealed to us. " If any man
will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." It
was Plotinus who said, The mind that wishes to
behold God must itself become God. As we thus

Soul Radiance 129

make it possible for these higher laws and truths
to be revealed to us, we will in turn become en-
lightened ones, channels through which they may be
revealed to others.

When one is fully alive to the possibilities that
come with this higher awakening, as he goes here
and there, as he mingles with his fellow-men, he
imparts to all an inspiration that kindles in them a
feeling of power kindred to his own. We are all
continually giving out influences similar to those
that are playing in our own lives. We do this in
the same way that each flower emits its own peculiar
odor. The rose breathes out its fragrance upon the
air and all who come near it are refreshed and
inspired by this emanation from the soul of the rose.
A poisonous weed sends out its obnoxious odor ; it
is neither refreshing nor inspiring in its effects, and
if one remain near it long he may be so unpleasantly
affected as to be made even ill by it.

The higher the life the more inspiring and help-
ful are the emanations that it is continually sending
out. The lower the life the more harmful is the
influence it continually sends out to all who come
in contact with it. Each one is continually radiat-
ing an atmosphere of one kind or the other.

We are told by the mariners who sail on the In-
dian Seas, that many times they are able to tell their
approach to certain islands long before they can
see them by the sweet fragrance of the sandalwood
that is wafted far out upon the deep. Do you not

130 This Mystical Life of Ours

see how it would serve to have such a soul playing
through such a body that as you go here and there
a subtle, silent force goes out from you that all
feel and are influenced by ; so that you carry with
you an inspiration and continually shed a benedic-
tion wherever you go ; so that your friends and all
people will say, — His coming brings peace and joy
into our homes, welcome his coming ; so that as you
pass along the street, tired, and weary, and even sin-
sick men and women will feel a certain divine
touch that will awaken new desires and a new life
in them ; that will make the very horse as you pass
him turn his head with a strange, half-human, long-
ing look? Such are the subtle powers of the hu-
man soul when it makes itself translucent to the
Divine.

In Tune with the Infinite.

XXXVIII.
INTUITION: THE VOICE OF THE SOUL.

The power of every life, the very life itself, is de-
termined by what it relates itself to. God is imma-
nent as well as transcendent. He is creating, work-
ing, ruling in the universe today, in your life and
in mine, just as much as He ever has been. We are
too apt to regard Him after the manner of an ab-
sentee landlord, one who has set in operation the
forces of this great universe, and then taken Him-
self away.

In the degree, however, that we recognize Him
as immanent as well as transcendent, are we able
to partake of His life and power. For in the de-
gree that we recognize Him as the Infinite Spirit
of Life and Power that is today, at this very mo-
ment, working and manifesting in and through all,
and then, in the degree that we come into the
realization of our oneness with this life, do we be-
come partakers of, and so do we actualize in our-
selves the qualities of His life. In the degree that
we open ourselves to the inflowing tide of this im-
manent and transcendent life, do zve make ourselves
channels through which the Infinite Intelligence
and Power can work.

It is through the instrumentality of the mind that

132 This Mystical Life of Ours

we are enabled to connect the real soul life with
the physical life, and so enable the soul life to man-
ifest and work through the physical. The thought
life needs continually to be illumined from within.
This illumination can come in just the degree that
through the agency of the mind we recognize our
oneness with the Divine, of which each soul is an
individual form of expression.

This gives us the inner guiding which we call in-
tuition. " Intuition is to the spiritual nature and
understanding practically what sense perception is
to the sensuous nature and understanding. It is an
inner spiritual sense through which man is opened
to the direct revelation and knowledge of God, the
secrets of nature and life, and through which he is
brought into conscious unity and fellowship with
God, and made to realize his own deific nature and
supremacy of being as the son of God. ... It is,
we repeat, a spiritual sense opening inwardly, as the
physical senses open outwardly; and because it
has the capacity to perceive, grasp, and know the
truth at first hand, independent of all external
sources of information, we call it intuition. All in-
spired teaching and spiritual revelations are based
upon the recognition of this spiritual faculty of the
soul, and its power to receive and appropriate them."

Some call it the voice of the soul; some call it
the voice of God; some call it the sixth sense. It
is our inner spiritual sense.

In the degree that we come into the recognition

Intuition : The Voice of the Soul 133

of our own true selves, into the realization of the
oneness of our life with the Infinite Life, and in the
degree that we open ourselves to this divine inflow,
does this voice of intuition, this voice of the soul,
this voice of God, speak clearly ; and in the degree
that we recognize, listen to, and obey it, does it
speak ever more clearly, until by-and-by there
comes the time when it is unerring, absolutely un-
erring, in its guidance.

In Tune with the Infinite.

XXXIX.

MIRACLES AND THE HIGHER LIFE.

The most powerful agent in character-building is
this awakening to the true self, to the fact that man
is a spiritual being, — nay, more, that I, this very
eternal I, am a spiritual being, right here and now,
at this very moment, with the God-powers which
can be quickly called forth. With this awakening,
life in all its manifold relations becomes wonder-
fully simplified. And as to the powers, the full
realization of the fact that man is a spiritual being
and a living as such brings, they are absolutely
without limit, increasing in direct proportion as the
higher self, the God-self, assumes the mastery, and
so as this higher spiritualization of life goes on.

With this awakening and realization one is
brought at once en rapport with the universe. He
feels the power and the thrill of the life universal.
He goes out from his own little garden spot, and
mingles with the great universe ; and the little per-
plexities, trials, and difficulties of life that to-day
so vex and annoy him, fall away of their own ac-
cord by reason of their very insignificance. The in-
tuitions become keener and ever more keen and un-
erring in their guidance. There comes more and
more the power of reading men, so that no harm

Miracles and the Higher Life 135

can come from this source. There comes more and
more the power of seeing into the future, so that
more and more true becomes the old adage, — that
coming events cast their shadows before. Health
in time takes the place of disease; for all disease
and its consequent suffering is merely the result
of the violation of law, either consciously or un-
consciously, either intentionally or unintentionally.
There comes also a spiritual power which, as it is
sent out, is adequate for the healing of others the
same as in the days of old. The body becomes less
gross and heavy, finer in its texture and form, so
that it serves far better and responds far more
readily to the higher impulses of the soul. Matter
itself in time responds to the action of these higher
forces; and many things that we are accustomed
by reason of our limited vision to call miraculous
or supernatural become the normal, the natural, the
every-day.

For what, let us ask, is a miracle? Nothing more
nor less than this : a highly illumined soul, one who
has brought his life into thorough harmony with
the higher spiritual laws and forces of his being,
and therefore with those of the universe, thus mak-
ing it possible for the highest things to come to him,
has brought to him a law a little higher than the
ordinary mind knows of as yet. This he touches, he
operates. It responds. The people see the result,
and cry out, Miracle! miracle! when it is just as
natural, just as fully in accordance with the law

136 This Mystical Life of Ours

on this higher plane, as is the common, the every-
day on the ordinary. And let it be remembered that
the miraculous, the supernatural of to-day becomes,
as in the process of evolution we leave the lower for
the higher, the common-place, the natural, the
every-day of to-morrow; and, truly, miracles are
being performed in the world to-day just as much
as they ever have been.

The Master never claimed for himself anything
that he did not claim for all mankind; but, quite
to the contrary, he said and continually repeated,
Not only shall ye do these things, but greater than
these shall ye do ; for I have pointed out to you the
way, — meaning, though strange as it evidently
seems to many, exactly what he said.

What All the World's A-Seeking.

XL.
THE VOICE OF THE HIGHER SELF.

Great should be the joy that God's boundless
truth is open to all, open equally to all, and that it
will make each one its dwelling place in proportion
as he earnestly desires it and opens himself to it.

And in regard to the wisdom that guides us in
our daily life, there is nothing that it is right and
well for us to know that may not be known when
we recognize the law of its coming, and are able
wisely to use it. Let us know that all things are
ours as soon as we know how to appropriate them.

"I hold it as a changeless law,

From which no soul can sway or swerve,
We have that in us which will draw
Whate'er we need or most deserve."

If the times come when we know not what course
to pursue, when we know not which way to turn,
the fault lies in ourselves. If the fault lies in our-
selves then the correction of this unnatural condi-
tion lies also in ourselves. It is never necessary
to come into such a state if we are awake and re-
main awake to the light and the powers within us.
The light is ever shining, and the only thing that
it is necessary for us diligently to see to is that we
permit neither this thing nor that to come between

138 This Mystical Life of Ours *

us and the light. " With Thee is the fountain of
life ; in Thy light shall we see light."

Let us hear the words of one of the most highly
illumined men I have ever known, and one who as
a consequence is never in the dark, when the time
comes, as to what to do and how to do it. " When-
ever you are in doubt as to the course you should
pursue, after you have turned to every outward
means of guidance, let the inward eye see, let the
inzvard ear hear, and allow this simple, natural,
beautiful process to go on unimpeded by question-
ings or doubts. ... In all dark hours and times
of unwonted perplexity we need to follow one
simple direction, found, as all needed directions can
be found, in the dear old gospel, which so many
read, but alas, so few interpret. ' Enter into thine
inner chamber and shut the door/ Does this mean
that we must literally betake ourselves to a private
closet with a key in the door? If it did, then the
command could never be obeyed in the open air,
on land or sea, and the Christ loved the lakes and
the forests far better than the cramping rooms of
city dwelling houses ; still his counsels are so wide-
reaching that there is no spot on earth and no con-
ceivable situation in which any of us may be placed
where we cannot follow them.

" One of the most intuitive men we ever met
had a desk in a city office where several other gen-
tlemen were doing business constantly and often
talking loudly. Entirely undisturbed by the many

•' The Voice of the Higher Self 139

various sounds about him, this self-centred, faith-
ful man would, in any moment of perplexity, draw
the curtains of privacy so completely about him
that he would be as fully enclosed in his own psychic
aura, and thereby as effectually removed from all
distractions as though he were alone in some pri-
meval wood. Taking his difficulty with him into
the mystic silence in the form of a direct question,
to which he expected a certain answer, he would
remain utterly passive until the reply came, and
never once through many years' experience did he
find himself disappointed or misled. Intuitive per-
ceptions of truth are the daily bread to satisfy our
daily hunger; they come like the manna in the
desert day by day; each day brings adequate sup-
ply for that day's need only. They must be fol-
lowed instantly, for dalliance with them means
their obscuration.

" One condition is imposed by universal law, and
this we must obey. Put all wishes aside save the
one desire to know truth; couple with this one de-
mand the fully consecrated determination to follow
what is distinctly perceived as truth immediately
it is revealed. No other affection must be permitted
to share the field with this all-absorbing love of
truth for its own sake. Obey this one direction and
never forget that expectation and desire are bride
and bridegroom and forever inseparable, and you
will soon find your hitherto darkened way grow
luminous with celestial radiance, for with the

140 This Mystical Life of Ours

heaven within, all heavens without incessantly co-
operate." This may be termed going into the " si-
lence." This it is to perceive and to be guided by
the light that lighteth every man that cometh into
the world. This it is to listen to and be guided by
the voice of your own soul, the voice of your higher
self.

In Tune with the Infinite.

XLI.

THE SOUL MUST BE MADE TRANSLU-
CENT TO THE DIVINE.

The soul is divine and in allowing it to become
translucent to the Infinite Spirit it reveals all things
to us. As man turns away from the Divine Light
do all things become hidden. There is nothing hid-
den of itself. When the spiritual sense is opened,
then it transcends all the limitations of the physical
senses and the intellect. And in the degree that we
are able to get away from the limitations set by
them, and realize that so far as the real life is con-
cerned it is one with the Infinite Life, then we begin
to reach the place where this voice will always
speak, where it will never fail us, if we follow it,
and as a consequence where we will always have
the divine illumination and guidance. To know
this and to live in this realization is not to live in
heaven hereafter, but to live in heaven here and
now, to-day and every day.

No human soul need be without it. When we
turn our face in the right direction it comes as
simply and as naturally as the flower blooms and
the winds blow. It is not to be bought with money
or with price. It is a condition waiting simply to be

142 This Mystical Life of Ours

realized, by rich and by poor, by king and by peas-
ant, by master and by servant the world over. All
are equal heirs to it. And so the peasant, if he find
it first, lives a life far transcending in beauty and in
real power the life of his king. The servant, if he
find it first, lives a life surpassing the life of his
master.

If you would find the highest, the fullest, and the
richest life that not only this world but that any
world can know, then do away with the sense of
the separateness of your life from the life of God.
Hold to the thought of your oneness. In the de-
gree that you do this you will find yourself realiz-
ing it more and more, and as this life of realization
is lived, you will find that no good thing will be
withheld, for all things are included in this. Then
it will be yours, without fears or forebodings, sim-
ply to do today what your hands find to do, and so
be ready for tomorrow, when it comes, knowing
that tomorrow will bring tomorrow's supplies for
the mental, the spiritual, and the physical life. Re-
member, however, that tomorrow's supplies are not
needed until tomorrow comes.

If one is willing to trust himself fully to the Law,
the Law will never fail him. It is the half-hearted
trusting to it that brings uncertain, and so, un-
satisfactory results. Nothing is firmer and surer
than Deity. It will never fail the one who throws
himself wholly upon it. The secret of life then, is

Soul Translucent to the Divine 143

to live continually in this realization, whatever one
may be doing, wherever one may be, by day and by
night, both waking and sleeping. It can be lived
in while we are sleeping no less than when we are

awake.

In Tune with the Infinite.

XLI1.

RECEIVING INSTRUCTION DURING
SLEEP.

During the process of sleep it is merely the physi-
cal body that is at rest and in quiet; the soul life
with all its activities goes right on. Sleep is na-
ture's provision for the recuperation of the body, for
the rebuilding and hence the replacing of the waste
that is continually going on during the waking hours.
It is nature's great restorer. If sufficient sleep
is not allowed the body, so that the rebuilding may
equalize the wasting process, the body is gradually
depleted and weakened, and any ailment or malady,
when it is in this condition, is able to find a more
ready entrance. It is for this reason that those
who are subject to it will take a cold, as we term
it, more readily when the body is tired or exhausted
through loss of sleep than at most any other time.
The body is in that condition where outside influ-
ences can have a more ready effect upon it, than
when it is in its normal condition. And when they
do have an effect they always go to the weaker por-
tions first.

Our bodies are given us to serve far higher pur-
poses than we ordinarily use them for. Especially
is this true in the numerous cases where the body is

Receiving Ins /ruction during Sleep 145

master of its owner. In the degree that we come
into the realization of the higher powers of the mind
and spirit, in that degree does the body, through
their influence upon it, become less gross and heavy,
finer in its texture and form. And then, because
the mind finds a kingdom of enjoyment in itself,
and in all the higher things it becomes related to,
excesses in eating and drinking, as well as all
others, naturally and of their own accord fall away.
There also falls away the desire for the heavier,
grosser, less valuable kinds of food and drink, such
as the flesh of animals, alcoholic drinks, and all
things of the class that stimulate the body and the
passions rather than build the body and the brain
into a strong, clean, well-nourished, enduring, and
fibrous condition. In the degree that the body thus
becomes less gross and heavy, finer in its texture
and form, is there less waste, and what there is is
more easily replaced, so that it keeps in a more reg-
ular and even condition. When this is true, less
sleep is actually required. And even the amount
that is taken does more for a body of this finer
type than it can do for one of the other nature.

As the body in this way grows finer, in other
words, as the process of its evolution is thus accel-
erated, it in turn helps the mind and the soul in the
realization of ever higher perceptions, and thus
body helps mind the same as mind builds body. It
was undoubtedly this fact that Browning had in
mind when he said :

146 This Mystical Life of Ours

"Let us cry 'All good things
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh, more now,
Than flesh helps soul.' "

Sleep, then, is for the resting and the rebuilding
of the body. The soul needs no rest, and while
the body is at rest in sleep the soul life is active
the same as when the body is in activity.

There are some, having a deep insight into the
soul's activities, who say that we travel when we
sleep. Some are able to recall and bring over into
the conscious, waking life the scenes visited, the
information gained, and the events that have tran-
spired. Most people are not able to do this and so
much that might otherwise be gained is lost. They
say, however, that it is in our power, in propor-
tion as we understand the laws, to go where we
will, and to bring over into the conscious, waking
life all the experiences thus gained. Be this, how-
ever, as it may, it certainly is true that while sleep-
ing we have the power, in a perfectly normal and
natural way, to get much of value by way of light,
instruction, and growth that the majority of people
now miss.

If the soul life, that which relates us to Infinite
Spirit, is always active, even while the body is at
rest, why may not the mind so direct conditions as
one falls asleep, that while the body is at rest, it may
continually receive illumination from the soul and
bring what it thus receives over into the conscious,
waking life ? This, indeed, can be done, and is done

Receiving Instructio?i during Sleep 147

by some to great advantage; and many times the
highest inspirations from the soul come in this way,
as would seem most natural, since at this time all
communications from the outer, material world no
longer enter. By charging the mind on going to
sleep as to a particular time for waking, it is pos-
sible, as many of us know, to wake on the very
minute.

The mind acting intently along a particular line
will continue so to act until some other object of
thought carries it along another line. And since
in sleep only the body is in quiet while the mind
and soul are active, then the mind on being given
a certain direction when one drops off to sleep, will
take up the line along which it is directed, and can
be made, in time, to bring over into consciousness
the results of its activities. Some will be able very
soon to get results of this kind ; for some it will
take longer. Quiet and continued effort will in-
crease the faculty.

In Tune with the Infinite.

XLIII.

THE JOSEPH TYPE BOTH DREAMS AND
INTERPRETS.

Then by virtue of the law of the drawing power
of mind, since the mind is always active, we are
drawing to us even while sleeping, influences from
the realms kindred to those in which we in our
thoughts are living before we fall asleep. In this
way we can put ourselves into relation with what-
ever kinds of influence we choose and accordingly
gain much during the process of sleep. In many
ways the interior faculties are more open and re-
ceptive while we are in sleep than while we are
awake. Hence the necessity of exercising even
greater care as to the nature of the thoughts that
occupy the mind as we enter into sleep, for there
can come to us only what we by our own order of
thought attract. We have it entirely in our own
hands.

And for the same reason, — this greater degree of
receptivity during this period, — we are able by un-
derstanding and using the law, to gain much of
value more readily in this way than when the physi-
cal senses are fully open to the material world about
us. Many will find a practice somewhat after the
following nature of value : When light or informa-

Joseph Type both Dreams and Interprets 149

tion is desired along any particular line, light or
information you feel it is right and wise for you
to have, as, for example, light in regard to an un-
certain course of action, then as you retire, first
bring your mind into the attitude of peace and good-
will for all. You in this way bring yourself into an
harmonious condition, and in turn attract to your-
self these same peaceful conditions from without.

Then resting in this sense of peace, quietly and
calmly send out your earnest desire for the needed
light or information ; cast out of your mind all fears
or forebodings lest it come not, for " in quietness
and in confidence shall be your strength." Take
the expectant attitude of mind, firmly believing and
expecting that when you awake the desired results
will be with you. Then on awaking, before any
thoughts or activities from the outside world come
in to absorb the attention, remain for a little while
receptive to the intuitions or the impressions that
come. When they come, when they manifest them-
selves clearly, then act upon them without delay.
In the degree that you do this, in that degree will
the power of doing it ever more effectively grow.

Or, if for unselfish purposes you desire to grow
and develop any of your faculties, or to increase
the health and strength of your body, take a cor-
responding attitude of mind, the form of which will
readily suggest itself in accordance with your par-
ticular needs or desires. In this way you will open
yourself to, you will connect yourself with, and

150 This Mystical Life of Ours

you will set into operation within yourself, the par-
ticular order of forces that will make for these re-
sults. Don't be afraid to voice your desires. In
this way you set into operation vibratory forces
which go out and which make their impress felt
somewhere, and which, arousing into activity or
uniting with other forces, set about to actualize
your desires. No good thing shall be withheld from
him who lives in harmony with the higher laws and
forces. There are no desires that shall not be sat-
isfied to the one who knows and who wisely uses
the powers with which he or she is endowed.

Your sleep will be more quiet, and peaceful, and
refreshing, and so your power increased mentally,
physically, and spiritually, simply by sending out
as you fall asleep, thoughts of love and good-will,
thoughts of peace and harmony for all. In this
way you are connecting yourself with all the forces
in the universe that make for peace and harmony.

Visions and inspirations of the highest order will
come in the degree that we make for them the right
conditions. One who has studied deeply into the
subject in hand has said: "To receive education
spiritually while the body is resting in sleep is a
perfectly normal and orderly experience, and would
occur definitely and satisfactorily in the lives of all
of us, if we paid more attention to internal and con-
sequently less to external states with their supposed
but unreal necessities. . . . Our thoughts make us
what we are here and hereafter, and our thoughts

Joseph Type both Dreams and Interprets 151

are often busier by night than by day, for when we
are asleep to the exterior we can be wide awake to
the interior world ; and the unseen world is a sub-
stantial place, the conditions of which are entirely
regulated by mental and moral attainments. When
we are not deriving information through outward
avenues of sensation, we are receiving instruction
through interior channels of perception, and when
this fact is understood for what it is worth, it will
become a universal custom for persons to take to
sleep with them the special subject on which they
most earnestly desire particular instruction. The
Pharaoh type of person dreams, and so does his
butler and baker ; but the Joseph type, which is that
of the truly gifted seer, both dreams and interprets."
In Tune with the Infinite,

XLIV.

HUMANENESS IN OUR DIET.

" Is not flesh-eating natural ? " I hear it asked.
" Does not man in his primitive, savage state make
use of flesh naturally? Do not animals devour one
another?" Yes; but we are not savages, nor are
we purely animals, and it is time for us to have out-
grown this attendant-of-savage-life custom. The
truth of the matter is that considerably more than
one-half of the people in the world to-day are not
flesh-eaters. And many peoples, whom large num-
bers in America and in England, for example, refer
to as the heathen, and send missionaries to Chris-
tianize, are far ahead of us, and hence more Christian
in this matter. And one reason why missionaries
in many parts of India, among the Buddhists and
Brahmins, for example, have been so comparatively
unsuccessful in their work is because the majority
of those keen-minded and spiritually unfolded peo-
ple cannot see what superiority there is in the re-
ligion of the one whom it allows to kill, cook, and
feast upon the bodies of his or her fellow-creatures,
which they themselves could not do.

In Bombay, to have the carcasses of animals ex-
posed to public view, as we see them in the stores
and markets here, and at times scores of them deco-

Humaneness in Our Diet 153

rating their windows and entire fronts, is prohibited

by law.

We shall find numerous articles of food, as we
study the matter, that, so far as body nourishing,
building, and sustaining qualities are concerned,
contain" twice, and in some cases over twice, as
much as any flesh food that can be mentioned. The
liability to mistake in this matter lies in the fact
that flesh foods when taken into the stomach burn,
oxygenize, more quickly than most other foods do,
and this short stimulating effect, resembling more
or less the stimulating effects of alcohol, is mis-
taken for a body nourishing and sustaining effect.
No, experience will teach you that if you do away
with flesh-eating and get in its place the other valu-
able foods, the time will quickly come when you
will care less and less for it ; then again, the time
will come when you will have no desire for it, and
finally, you will grow positively to dislike it and its
effects, and nothing could induce you to return
again to the flesh-pots. And as for those who think
that the ones who are not flesh-eaters arc neces-
sarily weaklings, I should like to match a friend of
mine, an instructor in one of our great American
universities, who for over eighteen years has eaten
no flesh foods— I should like to match him with
any whom they may send forward, when it comes
to a test of long-continued work and endurance.

In London there are already numbers of restau-
rants where no flesh foods are served; in Berlin

154 This Mystical Life of Ours

there are already about twenty, and their number
in these, as well as in numerous other cities, is con-
tinually increasing. It is a matter of but a short
time when there will be numbers of such in our own
country. The only really consistent humanitarian
is the one who is not a flesh-eater.

When one goes into the better restaurants where
no flesh foods are served, in England and Germany
for example, he is impressed with the foundation-
less excuse of so many people, that it is hard, or
even impossible, to get along without flesh foods.
In the other realms will be found an abundance, a
hundred or a thousand times over, and especially
when we begin to give some little attention to the
great varieties of most valuable foods there, and to
the exceedingly appetizing ways in which they can
be prepared. One reason why such large numbers
of people feel that meat is a necessity, or almost a
necessity with them as an article of food, is because
in our hotels and restaurants and cafes, and, in
fact, in the majority of our homes, the meat element
forms the chief portion of the foods prepared for
our tables, and to it, practically, all the skill in
preparation is given; while the other things are
looked upon more as accessories, and are many
times prepared in an exceedingly careless manner,
much as mere accessories would be. But with a
decreasing use of flesh foods and with more atten-
tion given to the skilful preparation of the large
numbers of other still more valuable foods, we

Humaneness in Our Diet 155

shall begin to wonder why we have so long been
slaves to a mere custom, thinking it a necessity.

The time will come in the world's history, and a
movement is setting in that direction even now,
when it will be deemed as strange a thing to find
a man or a woman who eats flesh as food, as it is
now to find a man or a woman who refrains from
eating it. And personally, I share the belief with
many others, that the highest mental, physical, and
spiritual excellence will come to a person only
when, among other things, he refrains from a flesh
and blood diet.

And there is another matter of grave importance
that we should not be allowed to lose sight of in
this connection. The brutality to the animal crea-
tion, which as a weaker creation we should pro-
tect and care for, has its corresponding and bal-
ancing element in connection with our duty to those
who are hired to do our butchery for us.

Each one who aids in creating the demand for
flesh foods is to a greater or less extent, not indi-
rectly but directly, responsible for the degrading
and dehumanizing influences at work in the lives of
many thousands of their fellow-men. We arc our
brother's keeper whenever it comes to a matter that
we are personally involved in, and there are respon-
sibilities that we cannot shift after we are once
made acquainted with the facts pertaining to them.

Every Living Creature.

XLV.
TO BE AT PEACE.

A deep interior meaning underlies the great truth,
" To be spiritually minded is life and peace." To
recognize the fact that we are spirit, and to live in
this thought, is to be spiritually minded, and so to
be in harmony and peace. Oh, the thousands of
men and women all about us weary with care,
troubled and ill at ease, running hither and thither
to find peace, weary in body, soul, and mind ; going
to other countries, traveling the world over, coming
back, and still not finding it. Of course they have
not found it and they never will find it in this way,
because they are looking for it where it is not.
They are looking for it without when they should
look within. Peace is to be found only within, and
unless one find it there he will never find it at all.

Peace lies not in the external world. It lies
within one's own soul. We may travel over many
different avenues in pursuit of it, we may seek it
through the channels of the bodily appetites and
passions, we may seek it through all the channels
of the external, we may chase for it hither and
thither, but it will always be just beyond our grasp,
because we are searching for it where it is not. In
the degree, however, that we order the bodily appe-

To be at Peace 157

tites and passions in accordance with the prompt-
ings of the soul within will the higher forms of
happiness and peace enter our lives ; but in the de-
gree that we fail in doing this will disease, suffering,
and discontent enter in.

To be at one with God is to be at peace. The
child simplicity is the greatest agency in bringing
this full and complete realization, the child sim-
plicity that recognizes its true relations with the
Father's life. There are people I know who have
come into such a conscious realization of their one-
ness with this Infinite Life, this Spirit of Infinite
Peace, that their lives are fairly bubbling over with
joy. I have particularly in mind at this moment
a comparatively young man who was an invalid for
several years, his health completely broken with ner-
vous exhaustion, who thought there was nothing in
life worth living for, to whom everything and every-
body presented a gloomy aspect, and he in turn
presented a gloomy aspect to all with whom he
came in contact. Not long ago he came into such
a vital realization of his oneness with this Infinite
Power, he opened himself so completely to its
divine inflow, that to-day he is in perfect health,
and frequently as I meet him now he cannot re-
sist the impulse to cry out, " Oh, it is a joy to be
alive."

He who comes into this higher realization never
has any fear, for he has always with him a sense
of protection, and the very realization of this makes

158 This Mystical Life of Ours

his protection complete. Of him it is true — " No
weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper;"
" There shall no ill come nigh thy dwelling ;" " Thou
shalt be in league with the stones of the field, and
the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee."

These are the men and the women who seem to
live charmed lives. The moment wC fear anything
we open the door for the entrance of the actualiza-
tion of the very thing we fear. An animal will
never harm a person who is absolutely fearless in
regard to it. The instant he fears he opens himself
to danger ; and some animals, the dog for example,
can instantly detect the element of fear, and this
gives him the courage to do harm. In the degree
that we come into a full realization of our oneness
with this Infinite Power do we become calm and
quiet, undisturbed by the little occurrences that be-
fore so vex and annoy us. We are no longer dis-
appointed in people, for we always read them aright.
We have the power of penetrating into their very
souls and seeing the underlying motives that are
at work there.

As soon as we arc able to read people aright we
will then cease to be disappointed in them, we will
cease to place them on pedestals, for this can never
be done without some attendant disappointment.
The fall will necessarily come, sooner or later, and
moreover, we are thus many times unfair to our
friends. When we come into harmony with this
Spirit of Peace, evil reports and apparent bad treat-

To be at Peace 159

ment, either at the hands of friends or of enemies,
will no longer disturb us. When we are conscious
of the fact that in our life and our work we are
true to that eternal principle of right, of truth, of
justice that runs through all the universe, that
unites and governs all, that always eventually pre-
vails, then nothing of this kind can come nigh us,
and come what may we will always be tranquil and
undisturbed.

The things that cause sorrow, and pain, and be-
reavement will not be able to take the hold of us
they now take, for true wisdom will enable us to see
the proper place and know the right relations of all
things. The loss of friends by the transition we
call death will not cause sorrow to the soul that has
come into this higher realization, for he knows that
there is no such thing as death, for each one is not
only a partaker, but an eternal partaker, of this In-
finite Life. He knows that the mere falling away
of the physical body by no means affects the real
soul life. With a tranquil spirit born of a higher
faith he can realize for himself, and to those less
strong he can say:

Loving friends! be wise and dry
Straightway every weeping eye;
What you left upon the bier
Is not worth a single tear;
'Tis a simple sea-shell; one
Out of which the pearl has gone.
The shell was nothing, leave it there;
The pearl — the soul — was all, is here.

160 This Mystical Life of Ours

And so far as the element of separation is con-
cerned, he realizes that to spirit there are no bounds,
and that spiritual communion, whether between two
persons in the body, or two persons, one in the body
and one out of the body, is within the reach of all.
In the degree that the higher spiritual life is real-
ized can there be this higher spiritual communion.

In the degree that we are filled with this Spirit
of Peace by thus opening ourselves to its inflow
does it pour through us, so that we carry it with us
wherever we go. In the degree that we thus open
ourselves do we become magnets to attract peace
from all sources ; and in the degree that we attract
and embody it in ourselves are we able to give it
forth to others. We can in this way become such
perfect embodiments of peace that wherever we go
we are continually shedding benedictions. There
are people all around us who are continually giving
out blessings and comfort, persons whose mere
presence seems to change sorrow into joy, fear into
courage, despair into hope, weakness into power.

It is the one who has come into the realization
of his own true self who carries this power with
him and who radiates it wherever he goes — the one
who, as we say, has found his center. And in all
the great universe there is but one center — the In-
finite Power that is working in and through all.
In Tune with the Infinite-

XLVL

COURAGE BEGETS STRENGTH ; FEAR
BEGETS WEAKNESS.

The one who then has found his centre is the one
who has come into the realization of his oneness
with this Infinite Power, the one who recognizes
himself as a spiritual being, for God is spirit.

Such is the man of power. Centred in the In-
finite, he has thereby, so to speak, connected him-
self with, he has attached his belts to, the great
power-house of the universe. He is constantly
drawing power to himself from all sources. For,
thus centred, knowing himself, conscious of his own
power, the thoughts that go from his mind are
thoughts of strength ; and by virtue of the law that
like attracts like, he by his thoughts is continually
attracting to himself from all quarters the aid of all
whose thoughts are thoughts of strength, and in
this way he is linking himself with this order of
thought in the universe.

And so to him that hath, to him shall be given.
This is simply the working of a natural law. His
strong, positive, and hence constructive thought is
continually working success for him along all lines,
and continually bringing to him help from all direc-
tions. The things that he sees, that he creates in

1 62 This Mystical Life of Ours

the ideal, are through the agency of this strong con-
structive thought continually clothing themselves,
taking form, manifesting themselves in the material.
Silent, unseen forces are at work which will sooner
or later be made manifest in the visible.

Fear and all thoughts of failure never suggest
themselves to such a man; or if they do, they are
immediately sent out of his mind, and so he is not
influenced by this order of thought from without.
He does not attract it to him. He is in another
current of thought. Consequently the weakening,
failure-bringing thoughts of the fearing, the vacil-
lating, the pessimistic about him, have no influence
upon him. The one who is of the negative, fearing
kind not only has his energies and his physical
agents weakened, or even paralyzed through the in-
fluence of this kind of thought that is born within
him, but he also in this way connects himself with
this order of thought in the world about him. And in
the degree that he does this does he become a victim
to the weak, fearing, negative minds all around him.
Instead of growing in power, he increases in weak-
ness. He is in the same order of thought with those
of whom it is true — and even that which they have
shall be taken away from them. This again is
simply the working of a natural law, the same as is
its opposite. Fearing lest I lose even what I have
I hide it away in a napkin. Very well. I must
then pay the price of my " fearing lest I lose."

Thoughts of strength both build strength from

Courage and Fear 163

within and attract it from without. Thoughts of
weakness actualize weakness from within and at-
tract it from without. Courage begets strength,
fear begets weakness. And so courage begets suc-
cess, fear begets failure. It is the man or the
woman of faith, and hence of courage, who is the
master of circumstances, and who makes his or her
power felt in the world. It is the man or the woman
who lacks faith and who as a consequence is weak-
ened and crippled by fears and forebodings, who is
the creature of all passing occurrences.

What one lives in his invisible, thought world,
he is continually actualizing in his visible, material
world. If he would have any conditions different
in the latter he must make the necessary change in
the former. A clear realization of this great fact
would bring success to thousands of men and
women who all about us are now in the depths of
despair. It would bring health, abounding health
and strength to thousands now diseased and suffer-
ing. It would bring peace and joy to thousands
now unhappy and ill at ease.

And oh, the thousands all about us who are con-
tinually living in the slavery of fear. The spirits
within that should be strong and powerful, are
rendered weak and impotent. Their energies are
crippled, their efforts are paralyzed. " Fear is
everywhere — fear of want, fear of starvation,
fear of public opinion, fear of private opinion,
fear that what we own to-day may not be ours

164 This Mystical Life of Ours

to-morrow, fear of sickness, fear of death. Fear
has become with millions a fixed habit. The
thought is everywhere. The thought is thrown
upon us from every direction. ... To live in
continual dread, continual cringing, continual fear
of anything, be it loss of love, loss of money, loss
of position or situation, is to take the readiest means
to lose what we fear we shall."

By fear nothing is to be gained, but on the con-
trary, everything is to be lost. " I know this is
true," says one, " but I am given to fear ; it's nat-
ural to me and I can't help it." Can't help it ! In
saying this you indicate one great reason of your
fear by showing that you do not even know your-
self as yet. You must know yourself in order to
know your powers, and not until you know them
can you use them wisely and fully. Don't say you
can't help it. If you think you can't, the chances
are that you can't. If you think you can, and act in
accordance with this thought, then not only are the
chances that you can, but if you act fully in accord-
ance with it, that you can and that you will is an
absolute certainty. It was Virgil who in describing
the crew which in his mind would win the race, said
of them — They can because they think they can. In
other words, this very attitude of mind on their
part will infuse a spiritual power into their bodies
that will give them the strength and endurance
which will enable them to win.

Then take the thought that you can; take it

Courage and Fear 165

merely as a seed-thought, if need be, plant it in
your consciousness, tend it, cultivate it, and it will
gradually reach out and gather strength from all
quarters. It will focus and make positive and act-
ive the spiritual force within you that is now scat-
tered and of little avail. It will draw to itself force
from without. It will draw to your aid the influ-
ence of other minds of its own nature, minds that
are fearless, strong, courageous. You will thus
draw to yourself and connect yourself with this
order of thought. If earnest and faithful, the time
will soon come when all fear will lose its hold;
and instead of being an embodiment of weakness
and a creature of circumstances, you will find your-
self a tower of strength and a master of circum-
stances.

In Tune with the Infinite.

XLVII.

" AND WHAT IS MINE SHALL KNOW MY
FACE."

We need more faith in every-day life — faith in
the power that works for good, faith in the Infinite
God, and hence faith in ourselves created in His
image. And however things at times may seem to
go, however dark at times appearances may be, the
knowledge of the fact that " the Supreme Power
has us in its charge as it has the suns and endless
systems of worlds in space," will give us the su-
preme faith that all is well with us, the same as all
is well with the world. " Thou wilt keep him in
perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.',

There is nothing firmer, and safer, and surer
than Deity. Then, as we recognize the fact that
we have it in our own hands to open ourselves
ever more fully to this Infinite Power, and call upon
it to manifest itself in and through us, we will find
in ourselves an ever increasing sense of power.
For in this way we are working in conjunction with
it, and it in turn is working in conjunction with
us. We are then led into the full realization of
the fact that all things work together for good to
those that love the good. Then the fears and fore-

"And What is Mine shall know My Face" 167

bodings that have dominated us in the past will be
transmuted into faith, and faith when rightly under-
stood and rightly used is a force before which noth-
ing can stand.

Materialism leads naturally to pessimism. And
how could it do otherwise? A knowledge of the
Spiritual Power working in and through us as well
as in and through all things, a power that works for
righteousness, leads to optimism. Pessimism leads
to weakness. Optimism leads to power. The one
who is centred in Deity is the one who not only
outrides every storm, but who through the faith,
and so, the conscious power that is in him, faces
storm with the same calmness and serenity that he
faces fair weather; for he knows well beforehand
what the outcome will be. He knows that under-
neath are the everlasting arms. He it is who realizes
the truth of the injunction, " Rest in the Lord, wait
patiently for Him and He shall give thee thy heart's
desire." All shall be given, simply given, to him
who is ready to accept it. Can anything be clearer
than this?

In the degree, then, that we work in conjunction
with the Supreme Power do we need the less to con-
cern ourselves about results. To live in the full
realization of this fact and all that attends it brings
peace, a full, rich, abiding peace— a peace that
makes the present complete, and that, going on be-
fore, brings back the assurance that as our days,
so shall our strength be. The one who is thus

168 This Mystical Life of Ours

centred, even in the face of all the unrest and the
turmoil about us, can realize and say:

"I stay my haste, I make delays,
For what avails this eager pace?
I stand amid eternal ways,
And what is mine shall know my face.

"Asleep, awake, by night or day,

The friends I seek are seeking me ;
No wind can drive my bark astray,
Nor change the tide of destiny.

"The waters know their own, and draw

The brooks that spring in yonder height;
So flows the good with equal law
Unto the soul of pure delight.

"The stars come nightly to the sky;
The tidal wave unto the sea ;
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,
Can keep my own away from me."

In Tune with the Infinite.

XLVIII.

HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT— ARE
WE BOUND BY THEM?

The true secret of power lies in keeping one's
connection with the God who worketh all things.

Whatever can't be done in the physical can be
done in the spiritual. And in direct proportion as
a man recognizes himself as spirit, and lives accord-
ingly, is he able to transcend in power the man
who recognizes himself merely as material. All the
sacred literature of the world is teeming with ex-
amples of what we call miracles. They are not con-
fined to any particular times or places. There is
no age of miracles in distinction from any other
period that may be an age of miracles. Whatever
has been done in the world's history can be done
again through the operation of the same laws and
forces. These miracles were performed not by
those who were more than men, but by those who
through the recognition of their oneness with God
became God-men, so that the higher forces and
powers worked through them.

For what, let us ask, is a miracle? Is it some-
thing supernatural? Supernatural only in the
sense of being above the natural, or rather, above

170 This Mystical Life of Ours

that which is natural to man in his ordinary state.
A miracle is nothing more nor less than this. One
who has come into a knowledge of his true identity,
of his oneness with the all-pervading Wisdom and
Power, thus makes it possible for laws higher than
the ordinary mind knows of to be revealed to him.
These laws he makes use of ; the people see the re-
sults, and by virtue of their own limitations, call
them miracles and speak of the person who performs
these apparently supernatural works as a supernat-
ural being. But they as supernatural beings could
themselves perform these supernatural works if
they would open themselves to the recognition of the
same laws, and consequently to the realization of
the same possibilities and powers. And let us also
remember that the supernatural of yesterday be-
comes, as in the process of evolution we advance
from the lower to the higher, from the more
material to the more spiritual, the common and the
natural of to-day, and what seems to be the super-
natural of to-day becomes in the same way the nat-
ural of to-morrow, and so on through the ages.
Yes, it is the God-man who does the things that
appear supernatural, the man who by virtue of his
realization of the higher powers transcends the ma-
jority and so stands out among them. But any
power that is possible to one human soul is possible
to another. The same laws operate in every life.
We can be men and women of power or we can be
men and women of impotence. The moment one

Heredity and Environment 171

vitally grasps the fact that he can rise he will rise,
and he can have absolutely no limitations other than
the limitations he sets to himself. Cream always
rises to the top. It rises simply because it is the
nature of cream to rise.

We hear much said of " environment." We need
to realize that environment should never be allowed
to make the man, but that man should always, and
always can, condition the environment. When we
realize this we will find that many times it is not
necessary to take ourselves out of any particular
environment, because we may yet have a work to
do there; but by the very force we carry with us
we can so affect and change matters that we will
have an entirely new set of conditions in an old
environment.

The same is true in regard to "hereditary"
traits and influences. We sometimes hear the
question asked, "Can they be overcome?" Only
the one who doesn't yet know himself can ask a
question such as this. If we entertain and live in
the belief that they cannot be overcome, then the
chances are that they will always remain. The mo-
ment, however, that we come into a realization of
our true selves, and so of the tremendous powers
and forces within— the powers and forces of the
mind and spirit — hereditary traits and influences
that are harmful in nature will begin to lessen, and
will disappear with a rapidity directly in proportion
to the completeness of this realization.

172 This Mystical Life of Ours

There is no thing we cannot overcome ;

Say not thy evil instinct is inherited,
Or that some trait inborn makes thy whole life for-
lorn,

And calls down punishment that is not merited.

Back of thy parents and grandparents lies
The Great Eternal Will! That too is thine
Inheritance, — strong, beautiful, divine,

Sure lever of success for one who tries.

Earth has no claim the soul cannot contest;

Know thyself part of the Eternal Source;

Naught can stand before thy spirit's force:
The soul's Divine Inheritance is best."

In Tune with the Infinite.

XLIX.
PRESERVING ONE'S INDIVIDUALITY.

Again there are many who are living far below
their possibilities because they are continually hand-
ing over their individualities to others. Do you
want to be a power in the world? Then be your-
self. Don't class yourself, don't allow yourself to
be classed among the second-hand, among the they-
say people. Be true to the highest within your own
soul, and then allow yourself to be governed by no
customs or conventionalities or arbitrary man-made
rules that are not founded upon principle. Those
things that are founded upon principle will be ob-
served by the right-minded, the right-hearted man
or woman, in any case.

Don't surrender your individuality, which is your
greatest agent of power, to the customs and conven-
tionalities that have gotten their life from the great
mass of those who haven't enough force to preserve
their individualities — those who in other words
have given them over as ingredients to the " mush
of concession " which one of our greatest writers
has said characterizes our modern society. If you
do surrender your individuality in this way, you
simply aid in increasing the undesirable conditions ;
in payment for this you become a slave, and the

174 This Mystical Life of Ours

chances are that in time you will be unable to hold
even the respect of those whom you in this way try
to please.

If you preserve your individuality then you be-
come a master, and if wise and discreet, your influ-
ence and power will be an aid in bringing about a
higher, a better, and a more healthy set of condi-
tions in the world. All people, moreover, will
think more of you, will honor you more highly for
doing this than if you show your weakness by con-
tributing yourself to the same " mush of conces-
sion " that so many of them are contributing them-
selves to. With all classes of people you will then
have an influence. " A great style of hero draws
equally all classes, all extremes of society to him,
till we say the very dogs believe in him.,,

To be one's self is the only worthy, and by all
means the only satisfactory, thing to be.

" When we appeal to the Supreme and our life
is governed by a principle, we are not governed
either by fear of public opinion or loss of others'
approbation, and we may be sure that the Supreme
will sustain us. If in any way we try to live to suit
others we never shall suit them, and the more we
try the more unreasonable and exacting do they be-
come. The government of your life is a matter
that lies entirely between God and yourself, and
when your life is swayed and influenced from any
other source you are on the wrong path." When
we find the kingdom within and become centred in

Preserving One's Individuality 175

the Infinite, then we become a law unto ourselves.
When we become a law unto ourselves, then we are
able to bring others to a knowledge of laws higher
than they are governed or many times even enslaved
by.

When we have found this centre, then that beau-
tiful simplicity, at once the charm and the power
of a truly great personality, enters into our lives.
Then all striving for effect — that sure indicator of
weakness and a lack of genuine power — is absent.
This striving for effect that is so common is always
an indicator of a lack of something. It brings to
mind the man who rides behind a dock-tailed horse.
Conscious of the fact that there is not enough in
himself to attract attention, in common with a num-
ber of other weaklings, he adopts the brutal method
of having his horse's tail sawed off, that its unnat-
ural, odd appearance may attract from people the
attention that he of himself is unable to secure.

But the one who strives for effect is always
fooled more than he succeeds in fooling others.
The man and the woman of true wisdom and in-
sight can always see the causes that prompt, the
motives that underlie the acts of all with whom he
or she comes in contact. " He is great who is what
he is from nature and who never reminds us of
others."

The men and the women who are truly awake to
the real powers within are the men and women who
seem to be doing so little, yet who in reality are

176 This Mystical Life of Ours

doing so much. They seem to be doing so little
because they are working with higher agencies, and
yet are doing so much because of this very fact.
They do their work on the higher plane. They
keep so completely their connection with the Infinite
Power that It does the work for them and they are
relieved of the responsibility. They are the care-
less people. They are careless because it is the In-
finite Power that is working through them, and with
this Infinite Power they are simply co-operating.
In Tune with the Infinite.

L.

EXCLUSIVENESS AND INCLUSIVENESS :
WHAT THEY INDICATE.

When we come fully to realize the great fact
that all evil and error and sin with all their conse-
quent sufferings come through ignorance, then
wherever we see a manifestation of these in what-
ever form, if our hearts are right, we will have com-
passion— sympathy and compassion for the one in
whom we see them. Compassion will then change
itself into love, and love will manifest itself in kindly
service. Such is the divine method. And so in-
stead of aiding in trampling and keeping a weaker
one down, we will hold him up until he can stand
alone and become the master.

By example and not by precept. By living, not
by preaching. By doing, not by professing. By
living the life, not by dogmatizing as to how it
should be lived. There is no contagion equal to the
contagion of life. Whatever we sow, that shall we
also reap, and each thing sown produces of its kind.
We can kill not only by doing another bodily injury
directly, but we can and we do kill by every antag-
onistic thought. Not only do we thus kill, but
while we kill we suicide. Many a man has been
made sick by having the ill thoughts of a number of

178 This Mystical Life of Ours

people centred upon him; some have been actually
killed. Put hatred into the world and we make it
a literal hell. Put love into the world and heaven
with all its beauties and glories becomes a reality.

Not to love is not to live, or it is to live a living
death. The life that goes out in love to all is the
life that is full, and rich, and continually expanding
in beauty and in power. Such is the life that be-
comes ever more inclusive, and hence larger in its
scope and influence. The larger the man and the
woman, the more inclusive they are in their love
and their friendships. The smaller the man and the
woman, the more dwarfed and dwindling their na-
tures, the more they pride themselves upon their
" exclusiveness." Any one — a fool or an idiot —
can be exclusive. It comes easy. It takes and it
signifies a large nature to be universal, to be inclu-
sive. Only the man or the woman of a small, per-
sonal, self-centred, self-seeking nature is exclusive.
The man or the woman of a large, royal, unself-
centred nature never is. The small nature is the
one that continually strives for effect. The larger
nature never does. The one goes here and there in
order to gain recognition, in order to attach him-
self to the world. The other stays at home and
draws the world to him. The one loves merely him-
self. The other loves all the world ; but in his larger
love for all the world he finds himself included.

Verily, then, the more one loves the nearer he ap-
proaches to God, for God is the spirit of infinite love.

Exclusivencss and Inclusivcncss 179

And when we come into the realization of our one-
ness with this Infinite Spirit, then divine love so fills
us that, enriching and enrapturing our own lives,
from them it flows out to enrich the life of all the
world.

In coming into the realization of our oneness with
the Infinite Life, we are brought at once into right
relations with our fellowmen. We are brought into
harmony with the great law, that we find our own
lives in losing them in the service of others. We
are brought to a knowledge of the fact that all life
is one, and so that we are all parts of the one great
whole. We then realize that we can't do for another
without at the same time doing for ourselves. We
also realize that we cannot do harm to another with-
out by that very act doing harm to ourselves. We
realize that the man who lives to himself alone lives
a little, dwarfed, and stunted life, because he has no
part in this larger life of humanity. But the one
who in service loses his own life in this larger life,
has his own life increased and enriched a thousand
or a million fold, and every joy, every happiness,
everything of value coming to each member of this
greater whole comes as such to him, for he has a
part in the life of each and all.

And here let a word be said in regard to true
service. Peter and John were one day going up to
the temple, and as they were entering the gate they
were met by a poor cripple who asked them for
alms. Instead of giving him something to supply

180 This Mystical Life of Ours

the day's needs and then leaving him in the same
dependent condition for the morrow and the mor-
row, Peter did him a real service, and a real serv-
ice for all mankind by saying : Silver and gold have
I none, but such as I have I give unto thee. And
then he made him whole. He thus brought him into
the condition where he could help himself. In other
words, the greatest service we can do for another
is to help him to help himself. To help him directly
might be weakening, though not necessarily. It
depends entirely upon circumstances. But to help
one to help himself is never weakening, but always
encouraging and strengthening, because it leads
him to a larger and stronger life.

In Tune with the Infinite.

LI.

THE NATURE OF REAL RICHES.

The one who has come into the realization of the
higher life no longer has a desire for the accumu-
lation of enormous wealth, any more than he has a
desire for any other excess. In the degree that he
comes into the recognition of the fact that he is
wealthy within, external wealth becomes less im-
portant in his estimation. When he comes into the
realization of the fact that there is a source within
from which he can put forth a power to call to him
and actualize in his hands at any time a sufficient
supply for all his needs, he no longer burdens him-
self with vast material accumulations that require
his constant care and attention, and thus take his
time and his thought from the real things of life.
In other words, he first finds the kingdom, and he
realizes that when he has found this, all other
things follow in full measure.

Wealth beyond a certain amount cannot be used,
and when it cannot be used it then becomes a hind-
rance rather than an aid, a curse rather than a bless-
ing. All about us are persons with lives now
stunted and dwarfed who could make them rich and
beautiful, filled with a perennial joy, if they would

1 82 This Mystical Life of Ours

begin wisely to use that which they have spent the
greater portion of their lives in accumulating.

The man who accumulates during his entire life,
and who leaves even all when he goes out for
" benevolent purposes," comes far short of the ideal
life. It is but a poor excuse of a life. It is not
especially commendable in me to give a pair of old,
worn-out shoes that I shall never use again to an-
other who is in need of shoes. But it is commend-
able, if indeed doing anything we ought to do can
be spoken of as being commendable, it is commend-
able for me to give a good pair of strong shoes to the
man who in the midst of a severe winter is practi-
cally shoeless, the man who is exerting every effort
to earn an honest living and thereby take care of his
family's needs. And if in giving the shoes I also
give myself, he then has a double gift, and I a
double blessing.

There is no wiser use that those who have great
accumulations can make of them than wisely to put
them into life, into character, day by day while they
live. In this way their lives will be continually en-
riched and increased. The time will come when it
will be regarded as a disgrace for a man to die and
leave vast accumulations behind him.

Many a person is living in a palace to-day who
in the real life is poorer than many a one who has
not even a roof to cover him. A man may own and
live in a palace, but the palace for him may be a
poorhouse still.

The Nature of Real Riehes 183

Moth and rust are nature's wise provisions —
God's methods — for disintegrating and scattering,
in this way getting ready for use in new forms, that
which is hoarded and consequently serving no use.
There is also a great law continually operating
whose effects are to dwarf and deaden the powers
of true enjoyment, as well as all the higher facul-
ties of the one who hoards.

Multitudes of people are continually keeping away
from them higher and better things because they
are forever clinging on to the old. If they would
use and pass on the old, room would be made for
new things to come. Hoarding always brings loss
in one form or another. Using, wisely using, brings
an ever renewing gain.

If the tree should as ignorantly and as greed-
ily hold on to this year's leaves when they have
served their purpose, where would be the full and
beautiful new life that will be put forth in the
spring? Gradual decay and finally death would be
the result. If the tree is already dead, then it may
perhaps be well enough for it to cling on to the old,
for no new leaves will come. But as long as the life
in the tree is active, it is necessary that it rid itself
of the old ones, that room may be made for the new.

Opulence is the law of the universe, an abundant
supply for every need if nothing is put in the way of
its coming. The natural and the normal life for us
is this — To have such a fulness of life and power
by living so continually in the realization of our

1 84 This Mystical Life of Ours

oneness with the Infinite Life and Power that we
find ourselves in the constant possession of an abun-
dant supply of all things needed.

Then not by hoarding but by wisely using and rid-
ding ourselves of things as they come, an ever re-
newing supply will be ours, a supply far better
adapted to present needs than the old could possibly
be. In this way we not only come into possession
of the richest treasures of the Infinite Good our-
selves, but we also become open channels through
which they can flow to others.

In Tune with the Infinite.

LII.
A METHOD OF ATTAINMENT.

A living insight into the fact of the essential unity
of the human life with the Divine Life is the pro-
foundest knowledge that man can attain to. This
as a mere intellectual perception, however, as a mere
dead theory, amounts to but little, if indeed to any-
thing at all, so far as bearing fruit in every-day life
is concerned. It is the vital, living realization of
this great transcendent truth in the life of each one
that makes it a mighty moving and moulding force
in his life.

It is only through this living realization of the
essential unity of our life with the Father's life that
true blessedness, and even true peace and happiness,
can be found. The sooner, then, that we come into
it, and thus live the life of the spirit, the better, for
neither will they come nor can they be found in any
other way. There is, moreover, no time either in
this form of life, or in any other form, that we can
any more readily come into it, and thereby into all
that follows. And when this fountain of Divine
Life is once fully opened within us, it can never
again be dried up, and we can rest assured that it
will at all times uphold us in peace and bear us on
in safety. And however strange or unaccountable

1 86 This Mystical Life of Ours

at times occurrences may appear, we can rest in a
triumphant security, knowing that only good can
come, for in God's life there is only good, and in
God's life we are now living, and there we shall live
forever.

There is a simple method which will aid us
greatly in coming into the realization we have been
considering. So simple is it that thousands and in-
deed millions have passed it by, looking, as is so
generally our custom, for agencies of at least appar-
ently greater power ; we so frequently and so univer-
sally forget that the greatest things in life are the
most simple.

The method is this : wherever you are, whatever
doing, walking along the street or through the fields,
at work of any kind, falling off to or awaking from
sleep, setting about any undertaking, in doubt as to
what course to pursue at any particular time, in
brief, whatever it may be, carry with you this
thought: It is the Father that worketh in me, my
Father works and I work. This is the thought so
continually used by Jesus, who came into the fullest
realization of the oneness of his life with the God-
life that any one who has lived in the world thus
far has come into, and it is given because it is so
simple. From it each can make his own formula.
Jesus' term was " the Father." Many will likewise
find themselves naturally using the same term and
will find it becoming very precious to them. Others
will find themselves using other terms for the same

A Method of Attainment 187

conception and thought : It is the Father that
worketh in mc, my Father works and I work. In
other words, It is the spirit of Infinite Life and
Power that is back of all, working in and through
all, the life and animating power of all — God — that
worketh in me, and I do as I am directed and em-
powered by It.

In this way we open ourselves, and become con-
sciously awake to the Infinite Life and Power that
is ever waiting and ready to direct and work in our
lives, if we will merely put ourselves into the atti-
tude whereby It can work in them. In this way we
open ourselves so that It can speak and manifest
to and through us. This It is ever ready to do if
we will but make for It the right conditions. By
carrying with us this thought, by holding ourselves
in this attitude of mind consciously for awhile, by
repeating it even in so many words now and then
at first, we will find it in time becoming our habitual
thought, and will find ourselves living in it without
the conscious effort that we have to make at first,
and we will in time find ourselves almost uncon-
sciously living in it continually. Thus God as a
living presence, as a guiding, animating power, be-
comes an actuality in our lives. The conscious
presence of God in our lives, which is the essence,
indeed the sum and substance of all religion, then
becomes a reality, and all wisdom and all power will
be given us as we are able to appropriate and use
them wisely; if for merely selfish, personal ends,

1 88 This Mystical Life of Ours

they will be withheld; if for the greatest aid and
service for the world, we will find them continually
increasing.

With this higher realization comes more and
more the simple, child-like spirit. With Jesus we
realize — Of myself I can do nothing, it is the Father
within me that doeth His work. In ourselves we
are and can do nothing ; in God we can do all things.
We never can be in the condition — in God — until
through this higher realization God becomes a con-
scious, living reality in our lives.

Faithfulness to this simple method will bring
about a complete change in great numbers of lives.
Each one for himself can test its efficacy in a very
short time. It is the highway upon which many
will enter that will by easy stages take them into the
realization of the highest life that can be attained
to. To set one's face in the right direction, and
then simply to travel on, will in time bring him into
the realization of the highest life that can be even
conceived of — it is the secret of all attainment.
The Greatest Thing Ever Known.

A SORT OF CREED.

To be observed to-day, or in part; to be changed to-morrow —
or abandoned — if the light is better.

To live to our highest in all things that pertain to us;

To lend a hand as best we can to all others for this
iame end ;

To aid in righting the wrongs that cross our path by-
pointing the wrong-doer to a better way, and thus aid him
«7i becoming a power for good ;

To remain in nature always sweet and simple and hum-
ble, and therefore strong;

To open ourselves fully and to keep ourselves pure and
clean as fit channels for the Divine Power to work through
us;

To turn toward and keep our faces always to the light;

To do our own thinking, listening quietly to the opinions
of others, and to be sufficiently men and women to act
arways upon our own convictions;

To do our duty as we see it, regardless of the opinions of
others, seeming gain or loss, temporary blame or praise;

To play the part of neither knave nor fool by attempt-
ing to judge another, but to give that same time to living
more worthily ourselves ;

To get up immediately when wre stumble, face again
to the light, and travel on without wasting even a moment
in regret;

To love all things and to stand in awe or fear of nothing
save our own wrong-doing ;

To recognize the good lying at the heart of all people, of
all things, waiting for expression, all in its own good way
and time ;

To love the fields and the wild flowers, the stars, the far-
open sea, the soft, warm earth, and to live much with them

190 This Mystical Life of Ours

alone, but to love struggling and weary men and women
and every pulsing living creature better;

To strive always to do unto others as we would have
them do unto us.

In brief — to be honest, to be fearless, to be just, to be
kind. This will make our part in life's great and as yet
not fully understood play truly glorious, and we need then
stand in fear of nothing — life nor death; for death is life.

Or, rather, it is the quick transition to life in another
form ; the putting off of the old coat and the putting on of a
new ; a passing not from light to darkness but from light to
light, according as we have lived here ; a taking up of life in
another form just where we leave it off here; a part in life
not to be shunned or dreaded or feared, but to be welcomed
with a glad and ready smile when it comes in its own good
way and time.

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